In Depth:  Alison Hull

Keith Ward is a Professor of Philosophy and the author of many books. Several of these set out to debunk the arguments of the New Atheists — in particular, Is religion dangerous? and Is religion irrational?, both published by Lion Hudson. Who is he aiming his writing at, and what are their main arguments?

‘The “New Atheists” — Dawkins, Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, to whom we can add Francis Crick, Peter Atkins and others — are vocally opposed to God and to Christian religion.

Every Christian parent fears their children will wander away from the church — and from God.

It is a fear understood by Rob Parsons, the Chairman and Founder of Care for the Family, and the subject of his latest book, Getting your Kids through Church without them ending up hating God. As he says, ‘I think I understand why many parents have that fear, because the spectre of it has terrorised my own heart. It is that the experience of being brought up in a Christian home and being intimately involved in the life of a local church, with all the pressures that can bring, could damage the seeds of faith in our children’s hearts. Our fear is that the exposure they have to Christianity will cause them to have little love for God or his people’.

Paul Mallard is the Director of Training and Development of the Midlands Gospel Partnership and former pastor of Woodgreen Evangelical Church in Worcester.

Paul served as President of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) from 2004 to 2007. He is married to Edrie; they have four children and two grandchildren. He has a great affection for Birmingham, where he was born and brought up, and is a keen West Bromwich Albion supporter. He believes that training a new generation of Christian leaders is very important.

On April 18 2007, three Christians were brutally murdered in an office block in Malatya, Turkey. One of those killed was German missionary, Tilmann Geske. His widow, Susanne, has now co-operated with a book, Married to a Martyr, in which she tells the story not only of that dreadful day but of her life of faith and their marriage.

Born in Germany, Susanne was converted as a young woman, and soon found herself at Bible college. Work for a small church followed, and there she met a man who initially did not impress her at all — Tilmann Geske. As she wrote in her journal, ‘This guy is embarassing. He just mumbles all the time. I can’t understand what he is saying, and his haircut is awful.’

Luis Palau has been preaching the gospel faithfully for a long, long time. His message doesn’t change: ‘the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for us.’

But his methods have been transformed in the last few years, changing both the name and style of his evangelistic events.

International evangelist Luis Palau will be speaking at this summer's Keswick Convention, an event he says he appreciates for the fact that it ‘has always been solidly grounded in the Scriptures’.

Ali Hull, the Convention press officer, interviewed Luis and asked him about the big stadium events he has long been involved in — do they still work?

Sinclair Ferguson is Professor of Systematic Theology of Westminster Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. He came to this year’s Keswick Convention to give five Bible readings on Romans, as well as the keynote Lecture which tackled many of the fashionable challenges to the doctrine of penal substitution.

In an interview at the Convention, he gave some background on his life and current concerns, starting with how he became a Christian.

Does your personality type affect the way you pray? Yes, according to Pablo Martinez, who as well as being a very popular speaker at Spring Harvest is also a psychiatrist, working in his native country, Spain.

His new book, Prayer Life - How your personality affects the way you pray, shows very clearly that different personality types have certain strengths - and weaknesses - in their spiritual life.

Speaking at this year's Word Alive (Spring Harvest), at Weymouth, Roy Clements challenged the church to rethink its policy on choosing leaders.

In his address Roy said: 'God is looking for people who have learnt the crucial lesson of humility.' And he went on to warn those who seek leadership: 'Beware of selfish ambition.'