Alex Jacob
1. How did you become a Christian?
I was brought up in a ‘sort of Christian home’ and was welcomed into the life of a church community from an early age. However I drifted away, but as a teenager I heard the gospel in a way I found compelling, challenging and affirming. I made a commitment at this point and have been seeking to follow up this commitment and to deepen my faith over the past 45+ years.
2. What lessons have you learnt that you would want to pass on to a younger Christian version of yourself?
You can learn lots of good stuff from people you don’t necessary agree with. You don’t need to win arguments if it risks losing relationships. Never regret time and money invested in study, travelling and ‘falling in love’.
3. How would you describe your prayer life?
Some structured stuff mixed with spontaneous Holy Spirit inspired moments. Often a bit routine, but occasionally a new reality opens up.
4. What two or three Christian books apart from the Bible have most influenced your faith?
A huge range of books would make the longlist, but probably go with: Bonhoeffer,True Patriot by Mary Bosanquet; How much more shall your Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him by Robert Gordon; and The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton.
5. Who or what has been your biggest Christian influences?
In terms of people I know first-hand, I would want to affirm my youth workers from my home church in Crowborough back in the 1970s, a range of ordination students I trained for Christian ministry with in Manchester in the early 1980s, and my wife. In terms of people I do not know first-hand, I would want to affirm Larry Norman, Bob Dylan, and a range of gifted preachers over the years.
In terms of ‘what’ I think, I would affirm the period of ‘charismatic renewal’ in the 1970s – 1980s, and opportunities to travel widely, especially times of travel (study tours/ pilgrimages) in Israel, and opportunities to engage with other Christians in many different contexts.
6. What are the main challenges you believe Christians face today?
There are numerous challenges which will impact at different times in different ways, however the main two are: the insidious pressure from a mainly secular world (and sometimes from part of the church) to turn the Kingdom of God into a private, personal religious space; and engaging with a militant Islamic agenda.
7. What encourages and what discourages you?
In terms of encouragement, seeing and hearing of many people becoming Christians – especially in the context of my ministry with CMJ, meeting Jewish people who become Jewish believers in Jesus. In terms of discouragement, I think the lack of empathy I see in myself and in others.
8. What makes you laugh?
I fear I maybe one of those blokes, to quote Billy Bragg,‘who laughs at his own jokes’. Plus a good dose of Father Ted.
9. What would you want to say to the wider evangelical world?
Two things – first, hold strong to the LORD and, secondly, affirm that if Jesus is LORD, He must also be the Messiah of Israel. This truth has huge implications for ecclesiology, mission, theology and discipleship.
10. Which Biblical person do you most look forward to meeting in glory and why?
I think Jude (Judah) or James (Jacob) – it must have been incredible to know Jesus as a brother as well as coming to know Him as LORD and to serve Him in the early church community.
