We should still work towards explaining the gospel message. But as a starting point, people are often genuinely interested in our personal testimony.

Traditionally, apologetics has been concerned with defending and commending the truth claims of the Christian faith. In the 1990s Christian apologist Alister McGrath, in response to changing social attitudes, suggested that apologetics should not just be interested in establishing the truth of the Christian faith, but also its relevance.[1] People wanted to know whether the Christian message had any impact on their lives. Today, the world has moved on again and we find ourselves needing to address a new situation: the view that Christianity is harmful. We now need to commend the Christian faith in terms of its truth, relevance and its goodness.

The Power of Personal Testimony

There are various ways we might seek to commend the gospel to people today. But one of the best, in that it addresses questions of both relevance and goodness, is to share our testimony. This includes recounting how and why we came to faith in Jesus, how this changed our life for the better and how God has helped us in some particular situation. We might even speak about how we have wrestled and come to terms with some difficult aspect of Christian teaching.

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