Questions we'd really not like to think too much about

Met yesterday with an old friend who came up through the youth group I was involved in and who is now a missionary in South Africa. He thanked me for producing the Questions Christians Ask series, and then, like many others, asked me what is next on the list.

I went through the icons on the front of the books, talking about progress with each of them, and the difficulties with getting the level and approach right and with the commissioning some of the titles.

Ben reminded me of a talk I was once asked to give - that I had completely forgotten about. Apparently, I had been asked back to the youth group to talk about UFOs - a subject of deep concern to some of the teenagers at the time. I have not a clue what I said, what Bible texts I referred to, or what kind of steer I gave on the subject - but the conversation reminded me how short-lived some of our concerns can be. As a teenager, I was often involved in intense conversations about UFOs, fuelled by wild speculation from Erich von Daniken's books like Chariot of the Gods (ask any man over 55 and they will fill you in if this is a mystery to you). But it's just not something people talk about now - not in my experience anyway.

And when you read books on apologetics from 20 or 30 years ago, their lists of top questions seem strangely unfamiliar to modern ears - apart from questions about suffering and a God of love. You will search in vain for references to gender and homosexuality in the handbooks on evangelism from a previous generation - but now they are virtually top of the list. Our culture and it's questions just move on.

And our thinking and engagement must move on with them.

In memory of that talk, Ben sent me through the mock-up to the right. It's not a title we are going to publish any time soon - but perhaps there are other Questions Christians No Longer Ask titles you might like to suggest... Answers on a postcard, or by clicking the comment button below...