Do a quick survey of the youth and young adults in your church. How many understand clearly the differences between what your church teaches and what the Roman Catholic Church teaches? If the answer is ‘Not many’, then consider what might happen when 500,000 of their peers get really excited about Catholicism at World Roman Catholic Youth Day on 20th July next year.
Christian Education Publications, known for its great Scripture resources, has put together a cool little tract with vivid graphics for this very purpose. The tract recaptures the timeless slogans that came out of the reformation for a new generation: only by grace, only in Christ, only through faith, only through the Bible.
Titled, "Does your relationship with God need mending?" this evangelistic tract assumes the person reading it already knows something about God. Great for the youth in our churches, but also great for them to go through with their Catholic friends as they have conversations about God in the coming year.
By promoting a healthy relationship with God, this flyer emphasises the result of a right understanding of God's grace. It avoids any sense of conflict with the Catholic Church, aiming instead to help people understand the Gospel whatever context they are in.
The tract is positive and up-beat. However this positive approach could be challenged for minimizing the problem of sin which is described as not being, "...smart enough or good enough to know or do all that God wants." Also, the cross is mentioned only once as the solution for our broken relationship with God. Having said this, I think it does the best job I've seen at explaining the Gospel and recapturing the great Reformation slogans for a new generation - and all this in under 200 words!
Finally, this resource fits in with a number of other new initiatives:
"¢ Megasurge on 1/3/08 at the Olympic Sports Centre
"¢ Dominic Steele's four-talk series Ideas that Changed the World from Christians in the media
"¢ Ray Galea's new book " "Nothing in my hand I Bring", and the evangelistic Bible Study for Catholics The God Who Saves, both available at . All these initiatives focus on key Reformation ideas.
