Iain Taylor interviews Rico Tice and Nate Morgan Locke about Life Explored, the new course from Christianity Explored Ministries
IT: Rico, what’s your take on the current challenges of evangelism in the UK today?
RT: Well, it’s hunger and hostility together, both are increasing. I’ve written a fair amount about this in Honest Evangelism, and I think the Talking Jesus report from the CofE painted a challenging, but hopeful, picture. I think many people are finding evangelism very tough right now. The culture seems to be hardening before our eyes. Our friends and families appear to be totally uninterested in the Bible, Jesus, the gospel and salvation. But the ‘Talking Jesus’ survey gave us some hope. It reports that one in five of our friends actually does want to know more about Jesus, so we do have a way in. We’ve just got to keep asking.
IT: So, Nate, how do we best reach people in this culture with the gospel?
NML: Good question! I think people of all ages, whatever they believe, want to be happy, but they’re also aware that lasting happiness is very difficult to find. C.S. Lewis described it as sehnsucht, a German word for this deeply emotional ache, a yearning for something more, something better.
So the approach we’ve taken with Life Explored (LE) is to reveal to people what they’re trusting for their happiness and ask them to compare that with the Triune God of Scripture. It’s a bit like the ‘Mirror of Erised’ in the Harry Potter stories, which reveals the heart’s desire of those who look into it.
RT: Yes, at CEM we’re convinced that true happiness is to know God and find our joy in him through the gospel. The series asks questions to get to the heart of what people are trusting in for their happiness.
IT: So the fundamental question that Life Explored asks people is: ‘What’s the best gift God could give you?’
RT: That’s right. And people come up with all sorts of things! A few million quid would be pretty handy. It would be great to be able to afford a decent sized house where I live. I think we’d all feel a little happier in my family if we had more space.
But through Life Explored we want to show how our deepest desires for happiness can only really be satisfied in one person, Jesus Christ. So the best gift God can (and does) give us is himself.
The thing is, when we ask people that question, it really exposes those ‘little gods’ that promise so much, yet deliver so little. Money’s great, but it’s never going to bring lasting happiness.
IT: Is that the key distinctive of Life Explored then – idolatry?
RT: Yes, absolutely. We’re thinking about sin as idolatry rather than law-breaking. Though obviously, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ is one of the Ten Commandments.
Barry Cooper, who co-wrote Life Explored with Nate, says that law-breaking and idolatry are like the two lenses in a pair of 3D spectacles. When we have them both we get a fuller picture. They’re not mutually exclusive, they’re complementary.
IT: But you’re not just thinking about false gods, are you?
RT: No, it’s really about trying to show the character of the Living God. In Christianity Explored, it’s Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, and in Life Explored, we’re presenting the Trinity through the big picture of the Bible – Creation, Fall, Redemption, New Creation.
IT: Are there any other distinctives?
NML: Yes, Life Explored is different in how we seek to convict of sin, as well as how we unpack it. What I mean by that is that we tell stories. That might freak some people out a little, but it is biblical! Compare how two different prophets (John the Baptist and Nathan) confront two different Kings (Herod and David) about their common sin of adultery. In Mark 6.18, John tells Herod: ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ This is raw propositional truth about the seriousness of sin and reflects our traditional evangelistic approach.
But Nathan in 2 Samuel 12 tells a powerful story instead, one that arouses very powerful emotions in David – sympathy toward the innocent character and anger toward the guilty one, so much so that the latter deserves to die! Only then does Nathan drop the bomb: ‘You are that man’. So David is struck to the core and driven to repent – all because the story caught the conscience of the king.
While John connects head and heart by starting with the head, Nathan instead begins with the heart. Both biblical approaches aim for repentance, but they come from different angles. Although some will accept John’s approach, many others, we believe, especially those with more aesthetic or artistic temperaments, and many younger people, will respond more readily to how Nathan operated. This ‘Nathan moment’ is at the heart of Life Explored, because it helps people to see themselves as they really are – and God’s grace as it really is.
C.S. Lewis (him again!) wrote that stories allow us to ‘steal past those watchful dragons’. That’s really important in a culture which can be instinctively resistant to Christian faith.
IT: Fantastic! But do you think Life Explored will work in practice?
RT: People got very excited when we trialled LE extensively before filming and we made further refinements after that, so we are confident it will work. Each session contains two films: the first one is a story and the second is a teaching film. We’re subtitling the teaching films into 15 languages, and, apart from in the first session, the story films are silent, so they are especially easy to use in cross-cultural situations in the UK.
NML: We’ve designed it to be very flexible. So you could run it as a seven-session course in your church, but it may be used just as easily one-to-one, at home or in a coffee shop. You can watch the films with a friend on a phone or tablet and discuss what you’ve seen. Single episodes work well, too. Essentially, Life Explored is as flexible as you are!
IT: Who created Life Explored? The films are breath taking.
NML: Barry Cooper and I wrote it, and the three of us present it. For the filming, we worked with the US production team behind Tim Keller’s The Prodigal God series, and Francis Chan’s Basic.
IT: When will LE be available to buy/access and how do I get hold of it?
NML: LE launches worldwide on 1 September this year.
For handbooks, leaders’ kits and other resources, see the Good Book Company website and for more information on the series, see the Christianity Explored Ministries website. For anyone who’s interested, we’re also on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
More about Life Explored
Each session emphasises a different aspect of God’s wondrous character and work.
1. The Good God
A preview of the six stories on LE, with the main question: What’s the best gift God could give you? (Genesis 1)
2. The Trustworthy God
Colonial India. A girl’s view of her best friend changes unexpectedly and forever. What’s your current view of God and how did you come to that viewpoint? (Genesis 3)
3. The Generous God
The Californian gold rush. A prospector risks his life seeking gold. How far would you go for what you love most? (Genesis 12)
4. The Liberating God
Suburbia. A man watches a TV commercial and feels the perfect garden would complete his life. Have your desires ever left you feeling trapped? (Exodus 12)
5. The Fulfilling God
Edo Period Japan. A woman is drawn away from her husband and family in pursuit of a more exciting life. What will bring you fulfilment? (John 4)
6. The Life-giving God
Los Angeles. A Hollywood actress has everything, but something isn’t right. What, if you lost it, would make you feel that life wasn’t worth living? (1Corinthians 15)
7. The Joyful God
An astronaut reflects on those he loves as his space station disintegrates. What’s the best gift God could give you? (Revelation 21)
