Barry Cooper explains who Discipleship Explored is for: âItâs intended for Christians, whether theyâve just started the Christian life, or have been on the road for a number of years.â And how has the series been received? âWeâve been thrilled to see the way Godâs been using it. It was nominated for media product of the year at the CBC awards, which made our friends in the marketing department very happy! But for me, the real joy comes from the personal emails with stories of how lives have been changed. I remember hearing from Tim Chester in Sheffield and he said: âWe should watch that ten-minute episode [âRighteous in Christâ] at least once a year because it encapsulates the truth of justification so well and applies it so powerfully.â Our aim with Discipleship Explored is to get out of the way and just let Godâs Word speak for itself, so it was lovely to hear that.â
The irony for Barry was that the opportunity to present an eight-part DVD series on the so-called âNew Testament letter of joyâ came at a time when he was struggling with profound grief. âThere were some personal issues at that point in my life which left me feeling isolated and extremely lonely, and so to be in front of camera every day was a huge challenge for me. At the same time, I was immensely grateful for the things that God was teaching me as I wrote the series. I needed those lessons about contentment. Still do! And I think the fact that I was suffering probably helped me to get under the skin of Philippians a bit better than I would have done otherwise.â
And for Barry, there couldnât be a better time to rediscover the truths taught in Discipleship Explored: âD. A. Carson says at the start of How Long, O Lord that itâs not much use trying to sort out our theology of suffering when weâre right in the middle of it. You canât put up storm defences as the waves are crashing against you. So for me, Philippians is a pre-emptive strike. Itâs a defence against the storm that is coming.â
Discipleship Explored is supported by a DVD written and presented by Barry Cooper. Each episode is beautifully shot on location around the UK, with settings as diverse as Highgateâs gothic cemetery, an East End boxing ring, a huge athletics stadium, a decommissioned observatory, an eerily empty underground station, and a scrapyard, filled with towering stacks of long abandoned cars.
Itâs a visual treat, with a gorgeous soundtrack and a rumbling voiceover from James Cosmo, the Scottish actor perhaps best known for his work on Braveheart. The director is Steve Hughes, Cooperâs long-time friend and collaborator, who has just recently finished work on the BBCâs Dr Who. But the star of the series is the script, based firmly in Godâs Word.
Barry explains his thinking behind the scripts: âI think one biblical idea clearly understood is better than three dimly grasped. With something as theologically rich as Philippians, itâs tempting to try and say everythingâand end up saying nothing. So I wanted to make each episode as lean as possible, to hit one point and keep hitting that point as clearly as I could. Each episode has a single pulse that runs all the way through it, and hopefully thereâs real power and clarity that comes from that.â
See the Discipleship Explored trailer here to get a feel for this DVD.
And please note: The DVD has been redesigned as part of developing the 2nd Edition of Discipleship Explored. However, the contents are unchanged from the previous version of the DVD, so you do not need to buy a new DVD if you already have an existing one.
âPhilippians is a letter whose time is coming. And itâs coming soon. Weâve enjoyed an unprecedented period of ease and goodwill in recent times. But when you look at human historyâand other parts of the worldâyou soon realise that all this comfort is just a blip. Donât expect it to last, because it wonât. Suffering is coming.â
For Barry Cooper, hearing Dick Lucas say those words proved to be the decisive moment as he wrote and presented Discipleship Explored, an eight-part DVD series based on Paulâs letter to the Philippians. Itâs the follow-up to the hugely popular Christianity Explored, a course that is now running in thousands of places and dozens of countries at any one time.
âI was sitting in this classroom in London, and Dick was saying that Philippians prepares the church to suffer well. It struck me as odd at the time, because everyone says: âOh Philippians, thatâs the New Testament letter of joy.â So my job as a writer was to try and see how those two thingsâjoy and sufferingâfitted together.â
The answer, Barry says, comes in Philippians 1 v 29. âPaul makes a staggering statement which I think Iâd lost sight of. He says, ââŚit has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for himâŚâ So Paul is saying: âJust as your belief in Christ is a joy-filled gift, so is your suffering for him.â And I remember thinking, âWell, is that really how I see my Christian life?â I think we spend most of our lives trying to avoid any kind of suffering or discomfort. We certainly donât see it as a joy-giving gift. It never occurred to me that when we try to dodge the discomfort of discipleship, we are actually denying ourselves good gifts from Godâs hand.â
For these reasons Discipleship Explored prepares people for the reality of living wholeheartedly for Christâboth the joy and the suffering. New Christians need to know this, but so do those whoâve been following Christ for some time. Our hope and prayer is that Discipleship Explored will help Christians walk confidently in the footsteps of Christ.
The new Discipleship Explored course - designed to give people the time and space to think about what it really means to live the Christian life - is now available. It's an eight-week journey through Paulâs letter to the Philippians which helps new Christians think through what it means to be a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ.
2nd Edition: the sameâŚ
Discipleship Explored has been widely used for several years. Churches and groups have found it a valuable tool that God has used to change many lives. Weâve now launched the 2nd Edition of this popular course. The core strengths have stayed the same:
âŚbut different
This second edition has been completely redesigned to tie in with the hugely popular Christianity Explored course, for which Discipleship Explored is an ideal follow-up. New features include:
More to come
This week on the blog we're going to be talking to Barry Cooper, who wrote and presents the DVD. He'll be explaining some of the thinking behind developing Discipleship Explored. And on Friday there will be some great special offers on the new Discipleship Explored material.
So you've done the prep. The main point is clear in your mind. The structure is sketched out. And your application thought-through. All that remains is to put the pieces together, write the talk and deliver it.
You're faithfully explaining the word of God so you're confident that it's going to be relevant and transformational. In the hands of the Holy Spirit, there's no doubt that it can be used to glorify God. But there's still a nagging suspicion that the talk that you end up with might be, well, how can I put this? Just a little bit dull...
If that scenario sounds familiar, why not spend an hour today listening to Pete Woodcock's seminar on how to stop being boring.
As an experienced speaker, Pete shares his top tips for passing on God's truth in ways that engage and enthuse. Originally given at the Bible-centred youthworker conference, there are hints here for anyone who has to teach Jesus from the front of church. If you listen, your talks may never be the same again ...
For many, the path to knowing Jesus is a series of steps. They get to know a Christian⌠they meet some of that Christian's friends⌠they go to a church-run event⌠they begin to be interested in what lies at the heart of the church⌠they come to an evangelistic talk⌠they start going to church meetings regularly, or go on a course⌠they put their faith in Christ.
Of course, that journey is different for all of us. Some stages get jumped over, swapped around, or taken a long time over.
But it's easy, having been Christians for a while, to forget that each of those steps doesn't seem very small when it's the next one. And so it's worth thinking: what's an easy, short next step for my tentatively-enquiring friendâand how can I help them make that step?... continue reading
ChristianityExplored.org exists to tell people about Christâwho He is, why He came, and what it means for us today. It's not an advert for the Christianity Explored courseâand your church doesn't need to run the course to use the website as an evangelistic resource.
But that said, there is an area of the site which tells people what a CE course is, and what it's like, and what "type" of people go (ie: all types!).
And if your church does run CE, it's well worth pointing people who might be interested to "The CE course" area on the site. Turning up for CE can be a pretty intimidating prospectâWhat will happen? Who'll be there? Will they be asked to pray or sing? Will they be put under pressure, or brainwashed?
There's a great short video at www.christianityexplored.org/course which aims to help people feel comfortable and confident about signing up. It's voiced by a real CE group leader, and features a wide range of CE courses from big church halls through living rooms to coffee shops.
If you're advertising a CE course at your church over Easter, why not show this two-minute video at evangelistic services and events? It's what it's made for, (literally!). Let people see that CE really is relaxed, informal and friendly, and they'll be far more likely to show up!
It's always great to hear about how God has worked in people's lives to bring them to faith in His Son. It encourages us to praise God; and reminds us that no-one (including our own non-believing friends and family) are beyond His reach.
And real-life stories of conversion also show those investigating Christianity that real people really do follow the Lord Jesusâthat He makes a difference to people's lives.
As Tim Keller, Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, says: "Testimony shows how comprehensive Christian fulfilment is. Christ not only appeals to our minds, he fills our hearts. Testimony enables more experientially oriented cultures and temperaments to see the attractiveness of Christianity."
Below are two amazingly moving testimonies, introduced by Carl Laferton, one of the creators of www.christianityexplored.org.
Deb Stein
"Deb's story needs very little introductionâit's best just to let it speak for itself. But I do remember filming her. She did a couple of trial runs and then we switched the camera on. She told her story in a single take. When she finished, we were absolutely silent. I was on the verge of tears."
Rob Prendergast
"Rob is one of the nicest guys I've met. His is a great story of being saved out of both nominal Christianity and then a lifestyle that left him a long way from Christ. When we finished filming his story, Rob mentioned he does some rappingâand he just started rapping to camera, without any prep. It was fantastic, and so we put one of his raps on the end of his story as a bonus feature⌠to reward people who watched to the end of his story!"
How could you use these testimonies?
You'll find all the real-life stories at www.christianityexplored.org/real-life-stories. There's also a page of people sharing their experiences of going on a Christianity Explored course at www.christianityexplored.org/course/who.
One of the ways the CE website helps personal evangelism is by giving answers to tough questions Christians are often asked (and sometimes ask ourselves, too!)
Carl Laferton, one of the creators of the site, explains the thinking behind these video answers:
"We wanted the answers to come across as warm, conversational, and real. Often videos like these can come across as: 'Let me show you why you're wrong, and a bit stupid.' Or they can try to say absolutely everything about a particular topic or use words that are only heard in church. Our goal was for every answer to meet people where they are at, to recognise the validity of their question, and to point people to Jesus in non-jargony language, encouraging them to keep thinking about the issue.
"So we stripped down the setting and lighting so that it didn't look staged or stylised, and went for a simple edit style. We didn't use an autocue, so that the answers would sound real, not scripted (which meant multiple, painful takes at times!) And we used a wide variety of peopleâsome hugely experienced pastors and evangelists like Vaughan Roberts, Kevin DeYoung, Lizzy Smallwood, and others who have secular jobs and are at the coalface of relational evangelism each day, such as Dawn Evans and Abi Styles.
"Of course, while our main aim was to help non-Christians think through their questions and point them to Jesus, the great thing about these answers is how much Christians can learn from them, about how to go about answering their friends. I learned loads from filming and listening to these guys!"
Below are two of the answers: Dawn Evans, a schoolteacher in the midlands, on suffering; and Jon Cawsey, who works for a church on an Essex council estate, on whether decent people deserve to go to heaven. You'll find all of them at: www.christianityexplored.co.uk/tough-questions.
With mission season coming up, we're featuring a series of posts this week on the Christianity Explored website, a great resource for churches and individual Christians to point interested non-Christians to this Easter.
In this first post, Carl Laferton, one of the creators of the website, talks to The Good Book Company's David Berkeley about why there's a website at all⌠what it does⌠and how you can use it.
To grab a load of cards with the web address on, go here.
Or why not link the site to your church's website ...
