Go into any small town outside London and you are likely to come across an antique shop. I know almost nothing about antiques, but I’m always drawn into these shops and find myself nosing around looking at old watches and rusty toys, broken transistor radios and crystal port decanters.

I’m particularly drawn to weapons. For some reason, I quite like the idea of owning a gun from the English Civil War, or a bayonet from The Somme. There is something a little awe-inspiring about these deadly instruments of force. At the same time, there is something a little sad about a rusty old and defunct weapon; no longer useful for anything except as a talking point hanging on a living-room wall. It’s not that I want to romanticise war, but these weapons are reminders of strength and courage left on the field, and of the softness that sets in when generations have nothing meaningful to contend for. They underline how many of us have grown somewhat flabby and ineffectual in this sissified age.

This is particularly apt when it comes to our practice of the faith. We are called to war, and it requires courage and strength from God in order to prevail. Within this context, nothing is more tragic than rusty and unused weapons. What weapons do I speak of?

Words are weapons. Truth is a war hammer. Scripture is a double-edged sword. The Gospel is a bomb, ready to detonate in someone’s heart.

There are many reasons our weapons may get left to one side, to accumulate rust. You may have grown disheartened and discouraged at your lack of impact in telling your friends the gospel. You may be out of practice after so many months of social distancing. You may feel clumsy and weak, like an eleven year old attempting to wield a two-handed longsword.

As I sat listening to Simon Edwards at our Salt Live event a few weeks ago, it reminded me of how beautiful evangelism can be, but also of how easily we can lay these weapons down and grow weak and lazy. The Gospel can become a relic of a war fought by our ancestors, rather than something deadly in our hands.

Looking ahead, we are planning more such events. At the end of this month, Jeremy will be speaking at our next Salt Live event, The Anxious Generation: will we ever find peace?. This will be an amazing opportunity to bring friends. But, of course, our witness is not confined to such moments; a disciple should be packing heat at all times. Or as Paul puts it, we are to ‘take up the whole armour of God… as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace’.