In the early 2000s, we Christians felt we were in a curious minority. Fortunately, I was able to find my feet in a strong Bible-teaching church. Trying to help them to see that not only is he worth considering, but that faith in Jesus might be the most compelling way to understand the world.Ĭambridge was more of the same for me. So in one sense, I feel as if I’ve been doing what I’m doing now for as long as I can remember-trying to better understand my own faith and speak with people who aren’t even considering Jesus. From the age of nine onward, I was totally defined by Jesus and trying to engage with hard and legitimate questions or the overarching feeling from my classroom environments that Christianity was irrelevant and untrue. I grew up sort of naturally contending for my faith in academic and somewhat hostile environments. Most of my friends were not Christians at all. I attended secular schools, so I never felt as if I were in the majority in any room as a Christian. I was able to receive the Lord and grow in faith independently, in some sense, even though we were a “Christian” family. One of the advantages of that has been that I’ve always felt my faith was truly my own.

During the course of my childhood, my parents were very much finding their own faith as well. I was born into a mixed-Christian family, my mum coming from a Catholic background and my dad from the Church of England. Pastor caught up with McLaughlin to hear more about her story of faith and intellectual pursuit, what Christian leaders can do to better prepare themselves and their congregations for the concerns and confrontation of non-Christians, and why our advocacy for our faith must begin with listening and center on love. “I love exploring the message of Jesus with broken people (all of us),” she writes, “and I long to be part of the rediscovery of the Christian faith as an intellectual movement.” Outreach Editor-at-Large Paul J. In 2017, she co-founded Vocable Communications, and in 2019, her first book, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion (Crossway), was featured on the TED summer reading list in 2020 it was named the Outreach Resource of the Year for apologetics and the Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year by Christianity Today.īut all the activity has a purpose, and it’s a powerful one. After earning a doctorate in English literature from the University of Cambridge and a theology degree from Oak Hill College in London, she served for nine years as vice president of content for The Veritas Forum.

Rebecca mclaughlin gospel coalition