Faith

Margaret Silf, Darton, Longman & Todd

When Pilgrim Learning Community asked people from every presbytery what they wanted to learn about, the most common answer was about how to share our faith.

It seems that many Christians, while committed to their faith, wonder just how to go about sharing that faith with others.

Perhaps this is because we don’t really know how we would go about explaining what we believe and why we believe it in a way that people outside the church can understand.

If you’ve ever wondered how to share your faith, I highly recommend this little book.

Part of the simple faith series, Faith sets down the nature of faith in our contemporary world in 15 concise chapters, which cover the big questions of faith such as Who or what is God for me? How do we relate to God? Is God ultimately a certainty or a mystery? What does it mean to follow Jesus?

It also includes questions for reflection at the end of each chapter, which could be used as the basis of a small group study.

Concise but not dense, simple but certainly not simplistic, Faith is a treasure! It sets down the fundamentals of the Christian faith in such a way that it will help us as Christians put into words what it is that Christianity is about — and why we believe.

It will also give us a way to share our faith in a way that is relatively jargon free and authentic.

Karyl Davison

This fabulous little book is a fantastic introduction to faith and theology. It uses everyday language to explore this deep and at times perplexing thing we call faith.

Margaret Silf has delivered a powerful, yet simple and accessible resource. And it is only 64 pages in length and A6 in size.

It aligns very well with theUnitingChurch’s Basis of Union and would be an excellent read for new Christians, those preparing for Baptism and/or Confirmation, those who want to take a step into deeper theology or anyone in the church wanting to enrich their discipleship or help others to do so.

It would also easily lend itself as a discussion starter for a Bible study or discipleship group as each section has a brief set of “What Do You Think?” questions to encourage reflection and/or discussion.

For some along the more conservative end of the theological spectrum it may not be explicit enough about certain aspects of faith and discipleship, but this is a resource that is so reasonably priced and so easy to read that most people in the church should have a well-read copy on their shelves.

Jon Humphries