As social distancing continues to be the norm, it’s our prayer at Christianity Explored Ministries that Christians might take hold of the many opportunities presented by this crisis to love, live and tell the gospel.
Recently, I caught up with Duncan Steed, a doctor based in Portsmouth and part of ChristCentral Church, about his experience of running Discipleship Explored during lockdown. Discipleship Explored is an eight-session journey through Paul’s letter to the Philippians featuring documentary-style films, Bible studies and weekly reading plans.
Sarah Quinlan (SQ): How have you found being a doctor during the pandemic?
Duncan Steed (DS): It’s been an interesting time to work as a doctor! Hospitals across the country have had to massively change the way they do things.
The sacrifices of some of my colleagues have been staggering – some haven’t been able to see partners or children for the duration of lockdown.
I’m a doctor in the Royal Navy and work in the local hospital. Most of my time is spent in Accident & Emergency assessing Covid patients. Thankfully admissions are going down now.
SQ: How did you get involved leading a virtual Discipleship Explored course?
DS: When lockdown began I volunteered to run an online Bible study and my pastor told me about Discipleship Explored.
If you think about it, Paul was in a lockdown situation communicating with the media he had access to – a pen and a courier. And he was able to use that to encourage the church in Philippi in a time of trouble. So it’s strangely parallel to us in lockdown using the media we have access to – Zoom!
SQ: What are the benefits and challenges of running Discipleship Explored on Zoom?
DS: There’s loads of benefits. It’s easier for people to attend. It also allows people to join who wouldn’t normally be able to. In our group we have a lady who is over on the Isle of Wight, and two women with young children.
One challenge is opening up to each other. Some of the questions are hard-hitting and deep, and it can be difficult to have these discussions on screen. I found it helpful to follow up 1-2-1 afterwards.
SQ: What have been some big encouragements as you’ve studied the book of Philippians with your group?
DS: The pandemic has confronted us with our mortality and forced people to think about what they are living for.
There are so many alternative activities like online cookery and fitness classes to distract us from thinking about these big questions, but if you get the virus and end up in ITU, what really matters is where your confidence and security lies.
The first session of Discipleship Explored was so good in helping think about how we find this confidence and security in Jesus. Some people hadn’t thought this through before and so it was amazing to see people chewing it over for the first time.
