OUT OF THE SILENT CHURCHCONFERENCE 2012

Conference ProgrammeNovember 24, 2012

Conference Partners:

Photo by fearghalonuallain on flickr.com

schedule

8:45 - 9:25 Doors Open - Arrival/Admission

9:25 - 9:30 Behind the Cloud of Unknowing – Art Exhibit, David McCullough and Owen Daily

9:30 - 9:45 Announcements and opening worship

9:45 - 10:30 Chris Sinkinson - “Confident Christianity”

10:30 - 10:40 A word from our partner – Tearfund, Lynne Patterson

10:40 - 11:10 Coffee / tea break

11:10 - 12:05 John Lennox - “Confidence in Genesis”

12:05 - 12:10 Introducing Solas’ European Coordinator, Tom Courtney

12:10 - 1:50 Lunch

1:50 - 2:00 Introduction of the Edinburgh Solas Group, Stephen Allison

2:00 - 2:50 Peter Saunders - “Confidence in Christian ethics”

2:50 - 3:00 A word from our partner - Compassion UK, Darren Sharp

3:00 - 3:30 Coffee / Tea break / book signings

3:30 - 4:20 David Robertson “Confidence in Christ”

4:20 - 4:30 Church planting in difficult-to-reach areas of Scotland – Mez McConnell

4:30 - 5:15 Q & A and closing

welcomeWelcome to the ‘Out of The Silent Church’ Conference for 2012. If a week is a long time in politics then what does that make a year in the work of the Kingdom?! With all the cultural changes, threats and op-portunities facing the church in Scotland, we hope that today will be an equipping, encouraging and edifying day for every one of us and that above all, Christ will be exalted and glorified through what happens.

- David Robertson

the speakers

John LennoxJohn Lennox is Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is also an adjunct Lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University and at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and is a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum. In addi-tion, he teaches for the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme at the Executive Education Centre, Said Business School, Oxford University.

He studied at the Royal School Armagh, Northern Ireland and was Exhibitioner and Senior Scholar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University from which he took his MA and PhD. He worked for many years in the Mathematics Institute at the University of Wales in Cardiff which awarded him a DSc for his research. He also holds a DPhil from

Oxford University and an MA in Bioethics from the University of Surrey. He was a Senior Alexander Von Humboldt Fellow at the Universities of Wuerzburg and Freiburg in Germany. In addition to over seventy published mathematical papers he is the co-author of two research level texts in algebra in the Oxford Mathematical Monographs series.

Chris SinkinsonLecturer in Old Testament and Apologetics at Moorlands College. Chris became a Christian when he was a teenager. He has a BA in English and Philosophy, an MA in Biblical Studies and a PhD in Theology from Bristol University. He has been involved in Christian ministry with UCCF in Bath and Moordown Baptist Church in Bournemouth. Chris once had a job as an archae-ologist and has a leather jacket like the one Indiana Jones wore! Chris regularly writes a monthly apolo-getics column for Evangelicals Now. To relax, he plays with his two young sons and enjoys jogging.

Peter SaundersPeter Saunders was born in New Zealand and originally trained as a General Surgeon, before serving with the Africa Inland Mission in Kenya and completing two years mission training at All Nations Christian College in the UK.

Since 1992 he has served full-time with Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organisation with 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical students as members, first as Head of Student Ministries and

since 1999 as Chief Executive.

His current work involves leadership training, teach-ing evangelism and ethics, medical mission, writ-ing, editing and media work. He is also Campaign Director of the Care Not Killing Alliance, a coalition of over 40 organisations in the UK promoting pallia-tive care and opposing euthanasia.

Websites: www.cmf.org.uk; www.carenotkilling.org.uk; http://pjsaunders.blogspot.com/

David RobertsonDavid Robertson - is the minister of St Peter’s Free Church in Dundee, Scotland (a church that is best known for being the church of Robert Murray McCheyne). He is the author of Awakening (a contemporary account of McCheyne’s life) and The Dawkins Letters. The latter has resulted in him being invited to debate and discuss all over the UK and elsewhere in Europe. This has been done in cafes, bars, libraries, universities, pubs, restaurants, village halls, and even occasionally in churches! David is a chaplain at the University of Dundee and Chairman of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity. David has preached through Ecclesiastes twice and is currently working on a contemporary edition of the book, suitable for evan-gelism. David is married to Annabel and they have three children; Andrew (24), Becky (22) and Emma Jane (13).

solas purpose statementThe purpose of Solas is to bring the light and love of the Good News of Jesus Christ into the context of 21st century European culture. In re-sponse to those that seek to exclude Christianity from the public arena with their all-encompassing, negative and intolerant claims, we promote the positive teaching and example of Christ. To this end we will work with all Christians: training, equipping, proclaiming, serving and teaching to the glory of God, for the sake of all humanity and the environment in which we live.

Our belief is that Europe was founded upon and largely owes its culture and existence to Christianity but that there is a retreat from Christianity going on today. We believe that the rejection of Christianity for an ill-defined and untried secular humanism is at best a plunge into danger-ous waters, and at worst, a return to the Dark Ages. Therefore we aim to enable people to reclaim their Christian heritage, embrace the renewing grace of God and exemplify Christ in all things.

We intend to do this by promoting vigorous public engagement on a number of fronts. Christianity is applicable to every area of modern life and through the development of differing focus areas we will seek to demonstrate how public engagement can happen. We will encourage Christians and churches to use the arts, philosophy, music, history, society, media, medicine, science, theology and the community of the church, to express and teach the Christian faith, as given to us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We seek to represent Christ, his church and his Word against all the misrepresentations that exist in much of our secular media. We will run conferences, training courses and develop high quality media resources that help all Christians. We will work in partnership with individual churches and Christian organisa-tions to enable them to fulfill the Great Commission.

Soli Deo Gloria

Membership Application FormI apply for membership of the company. I am aware that the application shall be placed before the Trustees for approval. I understand that membership is personal to me and cannot be transferred.

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Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, died, and was buried; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

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solas church partnership programThe work of Solas is to promote the Good News of Christ by engag-ing with the culture. We do much of this work ourselves but if more Christians were trained in evangelism, the message would go much fur-ther. This is why we have creatd our Church Partnership Programme.

Our aim is to work through local churches to strengthen Christians in their faith so they are more willing and able to share it. We want to get involved with many churches and provide training, support, resources and gain feedback as to how we can best equip our church partners.

To learn more about how your church could become a partner please fill in the sign-up sheet at the Solas table.

Notes:

Art ExhibitionSolas is pleased to have another Morphē art exhibi-tion on display during the conference.

Morphē is a network of artists across the UK. It exists to support graduate artists, and helping them push

the boundaries between art and faith, encouraging an integration of a Christian worldview with professional creative practice.

In Scotland, by association with SOLAS we have produced a number of exhibitions in St Peter’s Church. This year will be the third that co-incides specifically with the ‘Out of the Silent Church’ Conference.

Cully, the director of Morphē in Scotland, invited 10 Scottish based art-ists to respond to the theme ‘Confident Christianity’. The exhibition will be entitled ‘ BEHIND THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING’ and will be part of the 2013 conference.

The pieces are displayed on the side walls of the main church and you can get in touch with Cully if you’d like to purchase any of the work or just learn more about Morphē.

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and SC037624 (Scotland)

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Accommodation options available on the university site. Paying by installments available for both tickets and accommodation.

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Solas Centre for Public Christianity

St Peter Street, Dundee, DD1 4JJ.

Tel: (01382) 525021

Email: office@solas-cpc.org

European Director: Tom Courtney – tom@solas-cpc.org

Web: www.solas-cpc.org; www.twitter.com/solascpc; www.facebook.com/solascpc; www.youtube.com/solascpc

Solas is a charity registered in Scotland. Charity No. SC041613

acknowledgementsSolas wishes to thank the following in the organization of the conference:

St Peter’s Free Church and all the volunteers who helped make the day possible.

Seraph Media for filming the event.