PEP Talk

Here at Solas we love partnering with Christian Union groups on university campuses across the UK. Today we speak with a student from Lancaster University where Andy spoke at their mission week this year. So what is a mission week? What sort of topics appeal to students? And how would you convince a history student that Jesus really rose from the dead? All that and more in this episode of PEP Talk.

Lena Dacca is a history student at Lancaster University, and recently served on her Christian Union’s committee as the Mission Week Coordinator. She is an aspiring historian and evangelist, and is especially passionate about sharing the gospel in a way which points people toward both the evidence for Christianity, and the transformative love of Jesus.

This week we have the return of Clare Williams, who contributed three chapters to our book, Have You Ever Wondered? She explains how contemporary questions around race and social justice so quickly point to the gospel when you take the time to wonder about their importance.

Clare Williams is the founder of Real Questions, a platform which explores the intersection of race and faith within the Black British context. She is also a speaker and tutor at The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. Prior to her work in apologetics, she was an English teacher in London secondary schools for ten years. Clare has a degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, and Masters in Leadership (2012) and Culture, Diaspora and Ethnicity (2021) from the University of London. She is now a doctoral student conducting research in Sociology at The University of Westminster.

With a rich Christian heritage, but a bleak spiritual present, Wales is in desperate need of the Gospel right now. God is not unaware of the situation however, and is calling people to pray, share the Word and plant new churches right now. Andy and Gavin chat with a leader of 100 Cyrmu and hear about the vision for 100 new churches in the next 10 years!

Visit 100Cyrmu and sign up to pray for Wales.

Ben Franks planted Hope Church Rhondda with his wife Lois in 2013. The church meets in a converted shop on Tonypandy’s high street and is hoping to launch two new congregations in the next 12 months. Alongside leading the team at Hope, Ben chairs the board of his family’s business while Lois runs a marketing company in Pontypridd.

In this episode we chat with a church planter and football chaplain working in the heart of Edinburgh. Be inspired by his approach to multiplying churches by sharing life and faith with individuals in a busy and cosmopolitan city.

Derek Lamont has been a pastor for 33 years, 22 of them in the centre of Edinburgh, with the Free Church of Scotland. His current church, St Columba's, has planted four new churches in different communities of the city. He will be leaving St C's in January to re-plant a Gospel church at the foot of Leith Walk. Derek is married to Catriona with four grown-up kids - two of whom live in America, the other two are married and work for churches in Edinburgh.

Have you ever heard someone dismiss the Bible "because it's just a fairy tale"? Or maybe that it was basically invented by the early Church to peddle their religious fiction? But if either of those were true, would the Bible be what it is today? Today's guest on PEP Talk introduces us to the myriad reasons why the Bible would be impossible to invent.
Mike D'Virgilio's latest book is Uninvented: Why The Bible Could Not Be Made Up, and The Evidence That Proves It. He has a B.S. in Communication from Arizona State University and an M.A. in Systematic Theology from Westminster Theological Seminary Philadelphia. He has worked in public relations, sales, and marketing for over three decades. His first book was an exploration of apologetics for parents called, The Persuasive Christian Parent: Building an Enduring Faith in You and Your Children. He also blogs on apologetics and a variety of topics at mikedvirgilio.com.