BAE Autumn 03 course: Report on Antonia Swinson's Taster Talk on Christianity: Boring, Untrue and Irrelevant?

(To see our suggestion for a good post Alpha Course - A Life Worth Living - click here.)

Christianity: Boring, Untrue and Irrelevant? Not as far as financial journalist and author Antonia Swinson is concerned! Brought up in a Christian family, she attended an Alpha course at Holy Trinity Brompton in London - the church behind this successful course - and then later in North Berwick after returning to Scotland. Alpha really helped her.

How to summarise Antonia's provocative talk? Well, she certainly showed us that Christianity can be not only exciting, true and thoroughly relevant, it can also take you onto all sorts of paths in life, including journalism and political activism. You may not relish the world of the press or the political scene, and you may not agree with all Antonia's convictions, but you are probably glad there are people like her in our society - digging, questioning, examining hidden motives, not taking everything at face value. She is an example of how the Christian faith can be not only what informs you deep down but also gets you to think seriously about your neighbours and fellow-citizens. Her public life is an outworking of her faith. She would be the last person to expect that you or I should go down her particular path, but she would warmly encourage us to examine what life may really be about, why we are here, what the meaning of our existence is - and to rediscover the excitement, truth and relevance of the Christian faith and to live it out in our individual, unique ways.

To encapsulate Antonia's message to us: "God as he looks at us not only never disinvests, he gives us a three star rating!" And to illustrate her thrust, here is a tale she emailed to me:

Subject: The $20 Bill

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill.

In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the $20 bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends," he said, "we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It is still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE YOU. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE. You are special - don't EVER forget it."

Count your blessings, not your problems. Never be afraid to try something new.

And remember: amateurs built the ark... professionals built the Titanic.

Finally: If God brings you to it - he will bring you through it. God will either lighten your load or he will strengthen your back.

Our suggestion for a good post Alpha course - A Life Worth Living

You may be interested to know that after each Business Alpha course OASIS, who sponsor Business Alpha Edinburgh, run a Life Worth Living (LWL) course for people who have done Alpha - for Christians and non-Christians alike. The Life Worth Living course also provides an opportunity for anyone at all to join a spiritually refreshing group. Participants meet over a sandwich lunch in St Cuthbert's Church to discuss a most interesting book by Nicky Gumbel. The book - which is provided - is a study of Paul's letter to the Philippians.

(To read the diary of a past LWL course click here.)

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