Lots of churches want to know what resources are out there to share the life-changing good news of Jesus. We’ve interviewed people who created or are using each tool.
The Life course is a popular course for the churches in the Reach Australia network, but it is modified and changed according to the church that uses it.
Jeremy Kidd has done an apprenticeship at Lighthouse Church. He’s currently the mission pastor as he continues theological study.
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TRANSCRIPT
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
0:00
I think this gives people who in our current context in Australia don’t necessarily have many of the building blocks of Christianity yet.It just gives them time to walk through who is Jesus, what is the Bible, Is it reliable and trustworthy?
0:16
What’s this?What is sin?What is Jesus death actually do?Why is that important?It gives them the time to actually investigate each one of those things.But another thing I think reason why it works so well is because ARC and evangelism is best done not one to one, but actually in a group context.
0:36
So it means that your church gets to do mission together.That was Jeremy Kidd.Jeremy is the missions pastor at Lighthouse Church on the Central Coast of NSW.I’m Pete Hughes and you’ve clicked on the Reach Australia podcast and in this season we are looking at different evangelistic tools to fill your missional toolbox with as many resources as possible.
0:59
The Life Course is a common course across the Reach Australia Network.One of the reasons it is effective is that each church seems to have made it its own.Lighthouse Church has been very, very effective in running the Life Course, seeing numerous people become Christian each year.
1:15
There is a link in the show notes where you can buy the EV version to get you started, but Jeremy starts by explaining what the Life series is.I would say it’s a place where the gospel that is powerful to save can be clearly explained to someone.
1:34
And it’s just this opportunity where God uses his spirit alongside people praying, the gospel being explained, but also actually in a community of people who are either Christians already walking people through, thinking through what the gospel has to say, but also actually alongside other people who are also inquiring and investigating Jesus for themselves as well.
2:00
OK, so so talk me through how does it work?Is it is it like it’s a course?Is it talks?Is it discussion?Is it food?Give me the What does a typical night look like?Yeah, good, good question.So you can run it either on a kind of a lunchtime type thing or you run it with on a night time.
2:17
Like key elements to it are though you have a talk that explains a kind of a part of the gospel and you’ll kind of go through different talks over how 4 to 4 to 5 or 6 weeks other elements are.You’ve got people generally in tables and your ideal is to have a mixture of Christians from your church alongside the people who are inquirers investigating Jesus.
2:42
Each night we generally try to have someone’s testimony, their story shared of how they got to know Jesus, how Jesus has changed their life.There’s opportunity for people to ask questions.So we always have our MC go round after the talk and people can ask any question they want.
3:01
They can write it down on a piece of paper so it’s anonymous.And then at the end of the night, I’ll go through and answer all those questions to people and they’re kind of the the main elements to it.OK, why do you think it works so well?Yeah, it’s a great question.
3:17
I reckon it’s it’s particularly because it gives people time.And so like, as I’ve thought about even looking at the Bible and you notice how Paul does a lot to both persuade and reason with the scriptures, with people.I think this gives people who in our current context in Australia don’t necessarily have many of the building blocks of Christianity yet, It just gives them time to walk through who is Jesus, What is the Bible?
3:46
Is it reliable and trustworthy?What’s this?What is sin?What is Jesus death actually do?Why is that important?It gives them the time to actually investigate each one of those things.But another thing I think reason why it works so well is because arcane evangelism is best done not one to one, but actually in a group context.
4:08
So it means that your church gets to do mission together so well.Why do you think that’s so important?Like why do you think the community part so such an important part of this?Yeah, yeah, I reckon it’s because people, I’ve heard it said someone, I think maybe Dave Jensen, someone said people non Christians, when they’re coming along to things for the first time, they’re not so much listening as they are feeling.
4:35
And so the experience that they have, how they are spoken to and welcomed by Christians, the just the, the generosity in the food that is shared, the testimony alongside your talk, all of those things together actually start to move people along in this process of investigating Jesus.
4:56
Now it’s it, that’s why it’s such an important thing to have over six weeks, isn’t it?It’s, it’s so that people get a chance to get to know people.They get to think through, they get to ask questions.So yeah, it, it, it.Does yours run over about 6.How long does yours run for?Because everyone has a slightly different take on the Life series, as far as I can work out.
5:13
Yeah.Yeah, yeah.So we we flick between 4 weeks and five weeks.And so the four weeks kind of feels like the minimum you’ve got.The first week is a hook, a kind of a question of maybe why am I here?What’s my purpose in life?How can I find life that’s satisfying in Jesus?
5:31
Then we usually do Week 2 as the Bible being reliable and trustworthy.Sometimes that’s the one that we skip out and and we kind of send someone the video of that talk.Then the third three weeks are sin.So what’s the problem now?
5:46
If we have our relationship with God broken because of sin, then Jesus death being what is the solution?And then the final week is how do I become a Christian?Or you could say, what’s the catch?How do you accept it?And so the key thing though, for us and I think for everyone, it’s that you see the Life series or any course, not just as the first 4-5 or six weeks, but it’s actually the start of what’s probably a three month minimum process to someone becoming a Christian and really grappling with what this is that they’ve accepted.
6:24
What what happens to your people after they’ve done this?Like they’ve finished life course?What’s their next step for you guys?Yeah.So we run more to Life, which is effectively just a set of Bible studies that the first five weeks we’ll back go over the same concepts that we’ve done at the Life series, just in a small group Bible study or in one to one.
6:42
And then we’ll do specific studies that are just going to be helpful to someone who’s brand new to Christianity.So what is God’s word?How is that God speaking to us?What is prayer?What is church?Foundational things that we think are going to be helpful and that can you can just keep going and going until someone’s really at the point that you feel like they’re ready to step into a growth group.
7:05
Well, let me come back to the the life course for about sorry.They will jump into a like a Bible study after that.Is that right?Yeah, our aim is that once we know that they’re definitely a Christian and they’ve kind of gone over some of these foundational things, we want them to do our connect series to kind of get welcomed into church and understand, oh, how’s the Bible shape what we’re doing as a church at Lighthouse.
7:27
And then, yeah, join in with a growth group and join in with somewhere that they’ll serve because that’s also going to help them hook in more and more with church.Sure.Let me come back to the topics that you picked there in terms of what you’ve covered in that course.Do you think there’s something like missing or is that is this the the minimum that you need to get to for someone to be able to respond to the gospel?
7:52
Yeah, we think it’s kind of like the minimum and a lot of what happens is the clarification comes in the follow up Bible study.So the helpful thing we find is that by the end of the you have a feedback form at the end and you can kind of get a bit of an idea of where someone’s at based on their response to two key questions.
8:13
The question of if you were to die tonight, where do you think you would go?And and then the next one is if you were to stand before Jesus and he was to ask you why shall lead into heaven, what would you say?And those are really helpful for us to then know, OK, where is someone kind of at and how are we going to do our follow up off the back of that?
8:33
Now, have you, have you actually had to make any modifications to it just to do with your particular context of dealing with the the people that you’re trying to reach?Yeah, that’s a good question.I reckon we we do a lot to make people feel like they’re not going to be put under pressure when they’re there.
8:53
So that’s a lot of how we go about the invitation conversation.We’re seeing so many people come to church and then come to the Life series after that.And that’s because we’re just seeing lots of new people check out church.And So what we’ve learnt is that we’ve got to describe it in a way that anyone could feel like they can come along.
9:15
And that’s both for someone who’s definitely not a Christian and maybe even for someone who’s possibly a Christian, but we’re not sure exactly where they’re at yet with Jesus.And so we bring them along, encouraging them to say that this is that they’re an Inquirer rather than and not believe it be what I call them.
9:34
An Inquirer means that they come along.And then the series is explained in the Gospel to both people who maybe are already Christians, people who aren’t Christians and people who have been disconnected from church for a while.And so some of what I’ve kind of thought about is how old am I speaking to the people in the room who are this mixture of either not at all Christians or D church people who are kind of coming back to Jesus through our life.
10:01
Series sure.Now let me let me move to the because you’re not doing Sloane the your Christians are there.Do you?Do you train them, for example in how to do the invitation?Yeah.So a lot of the invitation will be either through our our church people, which they’ll hear how to do that from maybe a Sunday where just me or one of the staff members or someone else at the front will mention it.
10:30
But then a lot of the training for our actual team who are there as part of it is that they’re really there to make people feel welcome.And so we want the bar to be kind of low to make it that they aren’t there specifically to answer all the questions really.
10:46
They’re there to make people feel comfortable because by them feeling comfortable then we’re more likely to engage in things, come back again and again, not feel like they’ll put under pressure.That then helps us walk them along in this journey, knowing that later down the line they’ll be able to go potentially in that follow up study more in depth into things if need be.
11:09
And do you train them just by going, hey, just watch and learn from what we do?Or have you actually got a particular training session for those Christians to go?OK, let me explain to the game plan to you.Yeah, so we have a mixture of people, we have a what we call a table talker team.
11:26
And so they’ll meet up once a term with their team leader, just talk about some principles about how we can most hopefully be part of those discussions.But then we’ll also have people who come along who they’re just bringing their friend along.And so again, I, I don’t do a big set of training.
11:41
It’s kind of just helping them, you know, hey, where you’re coming along to be able to make your person person feel welcome.And yeah, that’s about all.The good thing is like, you don’t need incredible evangelists as part of this team.But as people come along, as I hear you explain the gospel and as I hear whoever it is that’s leading answer questions, they are both learning how to share the gospel themselves.
12:05
They’re seeing it done, and they’re also hearing how to answer apologetic questions in a way that points back to Jesus.It’s, I reckon, like our church does a similar kind of thing and it’s just, it’s so great when you say bring a friend along and it’s not just that you’re in joy that they’re hearing the gospel, but you get to the joy of hearing the gospel.
12:25
And yeah, learning from, I mean, our, the guys who present it at our church do a brilliant job.I’m always learning new stuff from them.So it’s terrific.Now if someone was trying to implement this in their church and they went OK, I think I want to do a life course, what advice would you give them?Yeah, the first thing I’d say is just take responsibility for yourself.
12:44
I I remember hearing someone say to me when I was taking this on, they were running the same kind of thing at the time.And they told me, Jeremy, my heart bleeds for these people.And so if you’re the leader, care so much, love the lost people that you are trying to reach, be praying for them and be personally sold on it.
13:06
So personally aim to have.My aim is to have one spiritual conversation with someone to invite them to church or the life series every week and then share that.Agitate it from the front.Get growth groups sharing and praying about it.Another thing is take responsibility, but build it in others.
13:25
So get a team leader involved for your cafe and food kind of vibes for the table talker team, get someone involved.Get one or two other people who can be specific inviters on Sundays so that the people in the room who aren’t Christians or who you’re not quite sure where they’re at are getting a specific invite to the Life series there on a Sunday after church.
13:47
And then yeah, I think another key thing is be really aware of the, what I’d say are the drop off moments.So I suppose there’s the people coming along, people who have said, Oh yeah, I’m interested.You want to really solidify them by getting them to register.
14:04
But then once they’ve come along for the first week, another drop off moment is Week 2.Follow them up, give them a call, give them a text, say, hey, I need to know for the catering, are you coming along?And I’ll just know whether they’re coming again.And then the next drop off moment is as the course finishes, get them into your Bible study by calling them up individually.
14:25
If you really, really do love and care for these people, either you or whoever it is that’s going to run that follow up study needs to love them so much to give them a call so that they keep on going.It’s so easy for people to drop off.In fact, it’s it’s AI heard a saying my my trainer pastor who passed this on to me, he said it’s like herding cats.
14:46
Oh yeah.And so you just, you just got to keep doing it, keep persevering at it.Yeah, I, I think sometimes people go, I don’t want, I don’t want to hassle people, but I’ve never had a, a person like I I’ve rung a number of people and most people will come back and go.
15:05
Thanks for ringing.I really appreciate the fact that you’ve taken the time to ring and that you care enough to to find out where I’m at.So yeah, in fact, it’s really not a hassle at all, I don’t think.Yeah.Yeah, I’ve got three people in mind who have become Christians who have personally thanked me for the fact that I hassled them because they now know that they have an eternity with Jesus because of it.
15:25
Yeah, they worth.It, it’s great.It’s great.All right, you’ve got you’ve got those three people, but can you just give me one story of someone’s life who has been changed by this course?Yeah, yeah.So there’s a lady who’s getting baptized this Sunday.Her name is Reza Reza.
15:42
Filipino background has a Catholic background.She was just driving along one day, planning to go to Easter at the Catholic Church.She saw one of our signs.She looked up our website.She saw that we had services with kids ministry.
15:58
She came at church at Easter a year ago.Eventually I got to meet her and invite her on a Sunday to our life series.Reza came to the first time we ran the life series, but she only came for two weeks and then she kind of dropped off and so we re invited her again.
16:16
She came to the next series and across the five weeks on the last week she put her trust in Jesus.She specifically told the the table talker on her table.She was like, now I really know what it means to be born again.And and then it kept going.
16:33
Riza then invited and brought along her two teenage kids, 14 and 16, Isabella and Alfonso.They both became Christians at the next series.And then we talked about, oh, what’s baptism?
16:48
And yeah, she was like, oh, great, we can get baptized all together as a family.So they’re getting baptized this weekend and it’s super exciting.Wow, that’s such a great story.It’s such a great, you know, of the the parable of the four soils, that’s especially the 4th soil.It’s not just that they’ve become Christian.
17:05
They’re passing on to others.She’s seen others become Christian.That’s a great, great story.That was Jeremy Kidd from Lighthouse Church on the Central Coast of NSW.The EV version of the life course is available from the Church in a Box website and the link is in the show notes below.
17:26
But hopefully you’ve had enough from this episode to develop your own version of life.But whatever you do, do something.I’m Pete Hughes, Chat soon.
