Hello and thank you so much for downloading episode 478 of the Speak Life Podcast. My name is Thomas Thoroughgood, Media Producer at Speak Life, and we have a very special episode today. This episode is the recording of the launch event for our 321 course. Now, if you've been following Speak Life for even a short amount of time, you've probably heard of 3-2-1. It's our evangelistic course. Speak Life is all about shareable faith, and 3-2-1 is kind of the leading edge of what we do. The goal of 3-2-1 is to have something like a mere Christianity for the digital age, something that you can share with your friends and family to go deeper. Let's say you've had a really good conversation on the bus or by the water cooler at work about the deep questions of life. How do you follow up afterwards? Well, perhaps you could send them the link to 321 in a WhatsApp chat. 321 has been in the works for over a decade. There have been videos, there was a book, and there are more books coming. But for the first time, really, we've had the opportunity to film it properly and uh take a good amount of time on it. We've had some beautiful animations that have been made for it, and it's all housed on an online learning platform. It's ultra shareable, it's free to do the course, you just have to give your email address. And if you're a church leader or you think it would be good for your church to run the 321 course in evening sessions or something like that, you can absolutely do so. So it can be used in all sorts of ways, but it's kind of unique selling point, I suppose, is that it's a digital first course, it's especially optimized for people who are seeking online and people who are sharing all sorts of podcasts and content with their friends and family via WhatsApp. And on Monday this week we had a launch event, it was on Zoom. Over a hundred people were there on the call. We were joined by special guest Rico Tice. So in this episode, you're gonna hear the interview that Glenn and Nate did with Rico and his thoughts on evangelism in general in 2023. You're also gonna hear from some church leaders who have been using 321. We have various pilot churches scattered around the world. So if you haven't checked out 321 for yourself yet, why not do that today? Just go to 321course.com and that will take you to the page, and the first session will begin playing automatically, and you can just watch that there and then. And then there's a button below where you click on that, and then you'll just have to give an email address, and then you'll be able to see all eight sessions. But it's completely free. There's lots of other information on the page at 321course.com. If you're working for a church and you'd like to let us know that you're running the course, that would be great. We could be praying for you, and we're constantly honing the material and ironing out things. We want it to be as accessible and shareable and as much of a blessing to you as it can be. So 321course.com. 321course.com, as I call it. It's the numbers 321 and then course.com. Well, I will hand over to Glenn and Nate and the wonderful guests that we had at the launch of 321. Do enjoy this episode. Do check out 321, share it as widely as you like. Enjoy.
SPEAKER_06Hello, good evening, and welcome to the Speak Life House Party. September. No, it's October now. Already made one mistake. October the second, twenty twenty-three. I'm Nate Morganlock. I'm the creative director here at Speak Life, and I'm joined by Glenn Scrivener, who is our CEO and evangelist. And this is the logo, the shining, glorious, resplendent logo of 321, our new digital evangelistic course. And we're going to be introducing that to you and you to it as we go through. Now, let me give you an overview of the evening. Here's how it's going to roll. We are going to have a little chat about the history of 321. We're going to talk about how it was prepared. We're going to chat to some of the people who are involved in making uh this wonderful new resource. Then we're going to speak to Rico Tice. Rico Tice Rico Tice from that Christianity Explored Ministries group. We're going to chat to him. We're going to talk about evangelism. What does it mean to spread the name of Jesus wide around the UK and around the world? Get some of his insights and great tips on evangelism. You will have a chance to ask some questions, which will be read out by our very own media producer, Thomas Thorogood. Thomas, would you like to say hello into the mic? Hello. Great to be here. That's the voice of Thomas Thorogood. So he'll be reading out your questions. So we'll chat to Rico have a QA. And that should sort of get us up to about 9 p.m. At which time, if you need to go to bed, you can go to bed. We'll bid you adieu, we'll say 90 night sleep tight. But if you do want to stay up late, I know it's a school night. If you'd like to stay on past 9 pm, you can. And that I mean it's not quite all bets are off. It's a free-for-all. It's gonna that's when the party's gonna just go off atmospheric.
SPEAKER_11Like a frog in a sock, as they say in Australia. It's gonna go off. Like a frog in a sock.
SPEAKER_06Well, there you go. Write that one down. Any other Australian phrases that you'd like to add into the are there any Australians here? It might be five.
SPEAKER_11It's like three in the morning there, so probably not. But is it well soon it'll be three? There are some people. There are there are there are ch Australian churches running 321 this week. So it's very exciting.
SPEAKER_06Yes, and we're gonna chat to some of the people who are running 3-2-1 uh uh at this very moment. Um right, so that sort of gets us up to 9 p.m. and then we'll be finished with that sort of free-for-all chat at 9 30. And then it really will be bedtime, so you'll need to put your slippers on and uh toddle off to bed at 9 30. Brush your toothy pegs. But before we get any further, why don't we pray?
SPEAKER_11Let me pray first. Our Father in heaven, thank you so much. Uh that we are brothers and sisters in Jesus, filled by your Spirit, that uh we are children of you, our beloved Father, and we we thank you that we are united to your Son, the Lord Jesus, and we thank you that we have such good news for the world. Uh thank you, Father, for all that you've done in bringing us to this point, in shaping some of the 321 material and and some of these gospel resources. Thank you so much for the way that you've been uh working through Rico and Christianity Explored and uh so many different uh means and ways of lifting up Jesus so that the world might be drawn to him. And we just pray that uh over the course of this hour we would get such a sense of your goodness and that you would inspire us and equip us and help us to see uh the resources that are at hand, the ways that we can uh right now, even tonight, share good news with friends and family. We long to see our lost family members, our lost uh work colleagues and neighbors and friends uh come to know Jesus for themselves. And we pray that you would fill us with this good news so that we might overflow from here and bring good news to the nations. So help us, Father, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_06Amen. Amen. Right then. Glenn Scrivener, I have a question for you. Okay. What's the story behind 321? From whence it came?
SPEAKER_11It uh it came in the shower, as all the best ideas uh do come. And uh I remember do you remember blogs? There was there was a thing called blogs. I mean, they're still around. Back in the olden days. Back in the olden days when we had steam-powered uh Wi-Fi. We didn't have Wi-Fi, did we have a dial up and all that kind of stuff?
SPEAKER_02Nil new new niil.
SPEAKER_11Um Yeah, I there was a blog that was written by Kevin DeYoung of uh the Gospel Coalition Fame, and he wrote uh a gospel outline just as a blog post in four points, and he th he said one, two, three, four. And I remember being in the shower and thinking, well, what would it be like to start with Trinity? Well, I guess you'd have to start with three. And then I guess you'd have to go backwards. So what would be the two? And I thought, well, it would be Adam and Christ, wouldn't it? Because if God is three, a loving union of three, then I guess humanity, what are we like? Well, there was the first Adam who takes us down into death, and then the second Adam who brings us up into life. So that would be the two. And then what would be one? Well, brilliant, because now we can really foreground union with Christ. And so I wrote this uh blog post on the 22nd of October 2011. Uh so yeah, twelve years ago, and out it went. And I was just reading it this morning, and so much of the language that's there is still in the new course that we're launching tonight.
SPEAKER_06That's right. What's the final thing you actually followed?
SPEAKER_11So the fine the final thing is uh the three invite you in, the two divide the world. Who are you one with? And you're like, yeah.
SPEAKER_06That's almost still exactly the same verbiage as we have in the latest iteration of the phone. Just haven't changed. There's no growth. There's no growth. It starts as a uh a Eureka moment in the shower. You were responding to Kevin De Young and his one, two, three, four. Yes. We have three two one, it's a blog post, but what next?
SPEAKER_11And then uh I got together with Jeremy Poyner, who's a great animator, and uh Josh Lucas, who's brilliant uh on the music, and we put together a video, and it's just a five-minute video, and we launch it out there in 2012, and it does rather well. It gets shared lots and lots and lots of times. And then a church asks me, why don't we just film a three-part evangelistic course that can be done really quickly? And we filmed it literally in a morning. Uh, I think we're we spent a couple of couple of hours in a uh photography studio, and I just and I wore the red jumper, and this has been known as the red jumper version.
SPEAKER_06The red jumper version is an excuse. Is anyone in the chat, if you're in the chat and you're familiar with any of these earlier iterations, please let us know.
SPEAKER_11Stick your hand up if you if you know about the the red jumper.
SPEAKER_06I remember doing the red version, red jumper version. TVB here, good.
SPEAKER_11Alex, yes, Alex has got his hand in the air. And then after that, uh there was a book, and so I wrote a book with We've moved from orange to red to blue, just so we're clear on that. Yeah, the branding is all over the place. But um wrote a book with ten of those at the end of 2014.
SPEAKER_06Um Profoundly Beckoning. Profoundly beckoning. Says Rico Tys. We'll find out later on if Rico stands by those strong words. Profoundly beckoning. Yes. That's great.
SPEAKER_11Yes, and if you could imagine what a profound beckoning looks like, I d I don't know, but I guess the book. That's what the book is. That is what the uh profoundly beckoning is the book. Uh and then I did this origami version, so there's like a paper folding version. Have I ever showed you the paper folding version? Do you know?
SPEAKER_06I've seen this video.
SPEAKER_11I've seen this. Okay. It's it's simple origami, and the the blessings of simple origami are twofold. Hey.
SPEAKER_06I thought I was gonna save that till after nine, but a good start. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_11And then we did we did the blue version. Video.
SPEAKER_06So blue video, yes. What's the difference between the blue video and the orange video other than the colour? The colour, and it's shorter. Oh.
SPEAKER_11In fact, the runtime of the blue video is three minutes twenty-one seconds. Huh? So we we think about things here at Speaklight. We really do. And uh and then we've been always wanting to like film the course in a really proper way. And so we kind of we saved up and we were about to film in uh this is the undercroft the um Hold on.
SPEAKER_06Does anyone know? Does anyone know where this is? Because I think this is quite a remarkable little building, and lots of people might actually already recognize it.
SPEAKER_11The resolution on our TV screen is not brilliant, so you might not be able to see brilliantly what it is. Yeah, I think but it's in London. It's very rare. I think Rico, Rico would know where it is. Yeah. Rico knows where it is.
SPEAKER_07Um, is it Clark and Well? Clark and Well.
SPEAKER_06St. James Clark and Well in the city.
SPEAKER_11Ten points in control of round two to Rico Tice. Okay. And we filmed we filmed that that very scene on March the 25th, 2020. Um and so that's what happened to that version of 321. So COVID just sort of smashed through that. And so instead we thought, okay, well, um let's do the yellow hoodie version. Does anyone has anyone done the yellow hoodie version? So that was uh particularly for zoomers in mind, and uh loads of churches did the 321 course online, but we really honed the material over lockdown, and then we've been able to last year.
SPEAKER_06Blue cardigan.
SPEAKER_11Blue cardigan.
SPEAKER_06So red sweater, yellow hoodie, now we've moved on to a blue cardigan as Glenn has aged over this last decade.
SPEAKER_11I think COVID has aged us all.
SPEAKER_06You've grown up, haven't you?
SPEAKER_11I have. I went from the yellow hoodie to the kind of the retirement home kind of look. But there we are in a beautiful Art Deco cinema and uh teaching in that environment, and Max Patterson uh did a fantastic job as our director of photography, and we've got these beautiful animations, and if you haven't checked them out, you will check them out by the end of the season.
SPEAKER_06We're gonna do that later on in the Zoom call.
SPEAKER_11So that's that's where we've come from, and this is where we are.
SPEAKER_06It's been 10 years in the making, uh, but we want to have a little chat. Can we just uh give some shout-outs to some people who were involved? Did we have Andy Tovey on the call? Andy, are you there? Hey! Hello, hello. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_03Hello. Doing okay. Just putting the kids to bed.
SPEAKER_06Uh it's an awkward time for parents everywhere. Yeah. Um, well, Andy, we're so, so glad that you can be uh involved in this. So my question is when did you first hear about 321 and how were you involved in making this last new iteration we're launching tonight?
SPEAKER_03I saw the uh yellow animation. When's the yellow animation from?
SPEAKER_112012.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Yeah, so I saw that ages ago. Yeah. Um probably linked to seeing some of Glenn's spoken word stuff as well.
SPEAKER_06Okay. And then we uh when did I first start chatting to you about it? It was probably December, I think, last year when we were first having conversations about uh stuff. And what did what was your contribution? Shout it out.
SPEAKER_03Um so I've done the animation for this course. Is the uh is the animation a new thing, the the the piece the camera course?
SPEAKER_11Correct, yeah. We we haven't really yeah had had that before.
SPEAKER_06We've not had it before. In fact, Andy Andy built us a cathedral. That's how much work this man has done towards that. We're very, very grateful, Andy. A digital cathedral. A digital cathedral, yes, because everything's computerized these days. And um, yeah, so thank you so much for all your work that you've you've put into this. Now, is is Ailey on the call as well? Can we get Ailey on? When you look at 321 shortly, you will see this wonderful animation, but also you will hear the beautiful voice of Ailey. Hello. Hello, hello very nice to have you with us. Um, what was your earliest uh interaction with the 321 material?
SPEAKER_00Um I remember seeing the origami version. I think that was in a cafe, wasn't it? It was that's right. Yeah, so that was that was my first kind of idea of the concept of 321 and kind of followed the evolution over the over the years.
SPEAKER_06Well fabulous. And then when did I'm trying to think when we when we contacted you? Because adding your voice in to sort of take people through the questions of the course was a fairly late stage decision. So when did we get in touch with you about that?
SPEAKER_00I actually don't know. It was maybe start of the year, maybe? Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_06Um but certainly we've we've all enjoyed listening to your welcome, your soothing tones have been wonderful. So uh thank you very much for that too. Very good. We really do appreciate all the work that all the different people who've contributed towards uh 321 over the last decade. Uh some in in smaller ways and others in in larger ways, but we're just grateful that it's a team effort. So thank you very much for all you've done. We really do appreciate it.
SPEAKER_11Thank you guys.
SPEAKER_06Now we are going to answer the question that might be going through some of your heads, which is what is 321 anyway? We're gonna show you a short video. So let's roll that VT.
SPEAKER_11Perspective is everything. So how do you see life? We want to give you a chance to slow down, get your bearings, and look again. Welcome to 321. This is life according to Jesus.
SPEAKER_06Okie dokie, it's it's the time we've all been waiting for. This is now gonna be the official launch of 321. Okay. Uh are you ready? Okay. I think we're gonna need a countdown. And uh thankfully. Shall we start? What should we start from? Let's start from five, just to give us a little bit. Okay, ready? Okay. You ready to go? All right. Five, four, three, two, one. There we are. Nice and done. Wow. Woohoo! Three, two, one. It's launched. It's live, it's taking its first crying breaths into the world. We're delighted. Um, right, so now it's an opportunity for you to actually take a look at it. So uh we are gonna let you see it for yourselves. There should be uh a QR code that's gonna appear. If you're on your laptop and you want to use your phone, that's fine. Or we'll put the uh the link in the chat, 321course.com, and you can go to that right about now. Let me just say a little bit about shareability, because this is part of uh what we're so excited about with this particular format or this way of doing uh an evangelistic course. So uh Glenn mentioned earlier on about uh blogs and the blogger sphere, way back in the early days of the internet, and people were writing these blogs. Now we know blogs are still going and microblogging is still happening on social media and all that sort of stuff. But there are big changes that have happened in terms of the way in which people share things online. So pre about 2009, okay, the big thing that you would do was just to sh broadcast something on your Facebook wall. So you'd post it up there, and everyone from your auntie Jean to the people you went to primary school with to the guy you worked with for two weeks on a summer trip to Zacinthos or something, all of these people would receive this uh information that you wanted to share to the world. And that has largely been the way in which Speak Life as a ministry has grown using the seasonal videos that Glenn has done, whether it's on um Christmas or Halloween or or Easter or Harvest Festival. So a lot of our content has been delivered through that means. So you broadcast it, you like it, and you share it as widely as you possibly can. What we've noticed though is that people are sharing online in different ways now. And so narrow casting is a thing. So what's narrow casting? Well, basically it means that you are specifically targeting a person or a small group of people with a piece of information. So the WhatsApp group, for example. So we all use WhatsApp to kind of chat with our friends and to make plans and all this sort of stuff. But in fact, we're we're sharing an awful lot of videos, we're sharing podcasts, we're sharing articles that we find interesting, knowing who we're sending them to. And so one of the ideas we've had with this 321 digital self-serve evangelistic course is that you can share it with your friend or group of friends on WhatsApp. And it's the ideal thing for a follow-up to an interesting conversation that got onto faith and God and religion uh one night uh over an evening meal or something. You can just say to your friend, hey, remember we were chatting about that? Well, uh here's a great way for you to find out more, and it's all for you to do on your phone. You can do it right there and then. So from broadcasting, we're still gonna be doing the broadcasting thing, we're still gonna be making lots and lots of shareable content that you can put onto your um your social media accounts so that you can share it widely with the world. But also we're really keen that people individually share the 321 course with their friends uh directly through uh formats like WhatsApp groups.
SPEAKER_11Yeah. And I think it really it really plugs a hole because I I think uh certainly we did. We we tried to reach out online and tried to make our evangelistic material as short as we can, as short as we can, as short as we can. And let's try and capture the Googlers because Google is how people find out about anything, faith included. And so we just wanted to capture those people who were searching for truth online. line and just try to make it as short as short as short as short as possible. But actually that doesn't help so much when you've just had a great conversation with your sister and you want to take things the next step. Whereas we want we we've wanted to have a kind of a digital Christianity 101. Like a mere Christianity for the digital age that makes sense in in modern life. Because that's how everybody's consuming you know the what are the podcasts that you're listening to? What's the next Netflix shows that you're binging? What what are you listening to on Audible? Like all this long form stuff. And so we've we've tried to have a way of really accessing the faith that is deep, that is rich, but it's incredibly shareable. You can share without shame and you can share without delay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_11We don't have to wait until the next 321 course is running on a Tuesday night. Love those courses but you can do it right now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And I think that so that sharing without shame we're hoping that this is a high quality evangelistic resource and you know we love to get people's feedback from running it. Like we're looking to improve it all the time. So we'd be very keen to get people's feedback and we've built that into this kind of early stage of the launch of 321. But also this sense of immediacy and the sense that people might be much more comfortable checking something out online where they can look yeah they can be less visible in a way rather than feeling some of the pressures that they might feel to go into an unknown location and meet with with strangers in person. So we're we're just very conscious of the fact that that is that is quite a a barrier for people to engage with uh and we want to be a stepping stone for that.
SPEAKER_11We it's not it's not do three two one and don't do the embody thing. But so often, you know I I go around speaking in churches the whole time and all the people I speak to who have showed up in church more recently they listened for six months to the sermons online. They watched the the live broadcasts on on a Sunday for six months before they ever set foot inside a church. And so this is not this is not a barrier to people coming uh into church. We we really do think it's a it's a stepping stone to it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah and that's it's it's as we say it's an extension of what you're already doing sharing um the gospel with your friends and uh people finding uh good gospel content online.
SPEAKER_11I think it's about time uh we welcomed Rico Tice uh to have a conversation with us Rico Tice yeah thank you so much you this is is this one of the first Zoom calls you've done from your from your new pad it is my first zoom call from my new pad uh we are very often and to celebrate it I've had my hair cut. Wonderful delighted to hear it so Rika a lot of people um will associate you with the the Christianity explored course uh which you kind of pioneered from from all souls laying in place uh over the last well more than quarter of a century I guess so so tell tell us how has the Lord used that resource and and what do you see as the the potential for something like a course nowadays well I honestly guys I I just think it's one thing I think it's confidence that as we get the Bible open God will speak and it's just having that confidence.
SPEAKER_07I think what you do amazingly is that you show us parts of the Bible we've not been thinking about for evangelism. I think that's where 321 just educates us all because you know I've never really thought about the Trinity it's right at the center of scripture but I've never you know until you guys came along I'd not thought about the Trinity for evangelism or in Adam or in Christ for evangelism but it's it's about that confidence that the Bible will do its work and and that's where the power is and let's then be really creative in getting that out but let's believe that the scriptures will do their work and then the Lord Jesus will walk off the pages of scripture that you know as we as we get the Bible open and as we expose people to the Bible God will do his work. Yes so I I think that's that's been un unrelentingly what you've got to know in evangelism where you think the power is and you know the power is in in God's word being opened. And as we give people access to that we trust that as as we preach Christ God will open blind eyes. He did it for us he can do them do it for them. And amazingly as you say a lot of people are doing that very quietly in a culture that's a bit hostile but but if it if they're given that opportunity to look an awful lot of people are looking.
SPEAKER_11What do you think is the opportunity that a a course gives because I I I I have friends who who have done Christianity explored courses and and I think for them it it has given them the permission to be a seeker when they haven't thought of themselves in those terms. It's kind of a court of the gentiles kind of space that's you know it's it's not in the temple and it's not in the Hoi Poloi but it's it's it is a space that church has opened up as a as a kind of a welcome area and and I I see still a space that that is that hospitality that we can offer for people who who still have questions. Do you think there's still a space for these sorts of courses?
SPEAKER_07Well it it it's just massively important to do this because people have got to learn church the Christian faith is together following Jesus and it gives them that first entree in so I'm a fan of the word one-to-one that material which just goes through John's gospel but the big issue with the word one-to-one and we're involved with trying to get that out is at what point do people learn that you know it's not just about having a little personal trainer you you we we do church together and and the amazing thing about a group is that you're on this journey together and then you hear different people's stories and you sort of see them engaging with Jesus. So it's amazing for training leaders but also for participants they begin to learn church and have a community and then you know agonizingly I've been involved with I think 10 or 11 male young male suicides the last seven years and one of the things that struck me about about all of those deaths that just the agony of it is that time and again those young men were saying one thing I am on my own. I'm alone and when we invite people into a little group and if they can come and they they feel confident suddenly they're not on their own. There are other people there there with them engaging they're hopefully leaders befriending so it's just it's just massively important for what it means to authentically follow Jesus. We do that together and you can ask any question you like and that of course is the difference now between 321 and Christiane explored in the old days I think that we really try and get across look you there's no question off limits. We'd love to hear your questions you know what what what do you want to ask and and so here's the material and of course with the Trinity you know my goodness me we've got some questions but the great thing you've done is you've gone right the Trinity's amazing I was always afraid of the Trinity I was always like don't bring up the Trinity I've got to you know I'm gonna try and do three types of water or whatever but actually Paul Blackham at all souls taught us that you know we're invited into this amazing relationship that has been there from the beginning of time. It's a relationship of love and the cross is the doorway in now you know what a wonderful thing to be teaching people. So I think it's having the confidence to to be saying this and saying now what do you make of that?
SPEAKER_06Yeah that's a really I I think it's so helpful Rico in terms of yeah thinking about how we don't need to be uh as you say afraid of the Trinity this is our God you know and and and so wanting to make sure that we're we're enthusiastic about uh explaining him to others or introducing him to others in the way that the Bible has taught us. Um now you just said there about uh it's great to be able to ask questions I just want to say to anyone who's currently watching if you have questions that you'd like to put to Rico or to Glenn or to me please do put them in the chat which is on that side the other side of Rico maybe and uh or you can send them direct to uh Emily or Mattia. So if you've got questions uh you can add them in there and then we'll go to Thomas after a few minutes and he will be able to read those questions out in the accent of your choice.
SPEAKER_07Just on the Trinity today so when I was having my hair cut I said to the barber I said I've got to go I've got to go and be part of a seminar on the Trinity what do you think of the Trinity? So that this is the barber and he said we're we're Greek Orthodox and then he asked a lady was cutting hair and and and he said what do we what do we think about the Trinity and she said well the Catholics just have two fingers but we have three when we do the blessing okay and then he said to me but you know you need to go and talk to a priest that's what he said but quite interesting that leading with the Trinity with the haircut he said well look we always do three and he said of course I don't really know but you know it's about our faith and family well what leads in to that with that guy so that's on that you know that that that's on New Cavinger Street where I have my haircut but it just shows I've not really led with the Trinity before on evangelism and I just I thought gosh you know that they're just wide open go back and say do you remember the three?
SPEAKER_11Can we talk about what that means I had a Turkish barber this is this is going back three years now I had a Turkish barber and we were getting into a conversation about who is God because he he believed in Allah and I was talking to him about father son and spirit and we were going back and forth back and forth and my my daughter is just sitting there with with a lollipop that he'd just given her and she takes the lollipop out of her mouth and she says God is a loving union of three father son and holy spirit and the Baba says I'll go with that then so she yeah she had three two one she had that that first point in her in her mind. What about the what about the two Rico the this idea of we are born into an Adamic humanity what Adam did we're always doing we're not these atomistic individuals but we're born into Adam therefore we need a second Adam. Why is that important in evangelism?
SPEAKER_07Well I again we're so massively individualistic and to try and get help people understand that we that the the the head of the river was was poisoned and that that original sin comes down through us and we're either this is what this is what the culture hates we're either in Adam or we're in Christ but you see if you can get people to understand that and they can begin to to see that and and and they can begin to get Genesis 3 which is the key passage with it then what happens is they they they start seeing their need of rescue you know they they know they've got to they're gonna have to be born again to come out of Adam to get into Christ and um right again I love I love your courage in in saying right we are going to do this here's the Garden of Eden what do you what what do you think happened there and can you not see it explains life and I think again on evangelism just as I've not had the courage to do the Trinity I've not had the courage to do in Adam as in in Christ and again thank you for for having the courage to say we do that and of course you say put on these lenses what do you think of the world if we're in Adam you know your your your Christmas tree illustration Glenn where you say that we we've got this lovely Christmas tree but it's been cut off and therefore it's dying even with all the baubles on it's dying. Now everyone knows that's true of life and the the the the way in which with your material you you know you do this is what it means to be in Adam and so can you see what an amazing thing it is to to then move into Christ and and have this opportunity of of everlasting life so so again I just think leading with it if we've got the courage to do that it starts making sense of life to people.
SPEAKER_11Yeah that's the thing the set the sense making of it I because I I think you know we're we're encouraging we've we've we've got 40 plus churches uh running 321 in this kind of uh phase where we're we're basically trying to iron all the glitches out before we really make a big push push next uh next year but just saying to all the all the church leaders when you get into the Adam stuff don't be too nervous because usually the conversations you have are not about um do you really believe in a talking snake and and uh you know and and the garden in that sense when you really see that Adam what Adam did we're always doing when you really get down to that and you see you see it as a profoundly familiar story actually rather than a f rather profoundly alien story this is this is what I'm like I I've got you know if I had the world at my feet I would screw things up within five minutes no problem at all and I think getting in touch with people's you know understanding their own self-sabotage is is is huge. So we've probably Glenn on that one just let me ask on that bro so when they when they suddenly go well you know they they they're they're thinking they're thinking back to school biology and they're thinking you know I was taught not really this is a bit of Christian fundamentalist stuff how do you just how do you just get them to I mean I think you're right the suspicion the selfishness the slavery the self-justification they're all there and it does unpack life how do you just go sorry that and honestly that's not a rhetorical question I'm asking how do I just yeah no I mean one thing people can come onto the the learning platform and we we go through frequently asked questions and I talk about the atom issue and that sort of stuff so we've got all sorts of material on it but briefly I mean you mentioned the biology point one of the things I do is just use the analogy of biology because I was born into this world and I had certain gene deletions and I have a certain proclivity towards kidney disease or if not kidney disease liver failure or if not liver failure heart failure or you know there are a thousand ticking time bombs in my genome and we all recognize that I do not have a pure genome. And Christians are just saying in the same way that genetically and biologically I am not a pure pristine specimen of a human being. So morally and spiritually I'm not a pure pristine specimen of a human being can you get on board with that and I I just try and keep it at at that level and and then we can have all sorts of conversations about you know did Adam fall and at that stage I I I kind of say well look the whole story is Adam fall Adam fell Jesus rose and I say look I'm not sure I I don't have CCTV footage of Genesis 3. I I don't know how I'm going to convince you that Adam fell but can we talk about whether Christ rose?
SPEAKER_10Very good.
SPEAKER_07Because if Christ rose then he vindicates the story and I guess Adam fell and I do it that way around and and and you're right the fall does make sense to people it was amazing how many chaplains in the First World War found themselves preaching themselves back to orthodoxy having had a liberal training just by the suffering they saw. It's just started making sense that we needed rescue from the fall.
SPEAKER_06Right, yeah and this sense making thing I mean you've already mentioned it and as you say there we go in a large part we're in a culture which doesn't think the world makes sense but is living with this tension of well hold on I'm holding these various different things to be true but they don't make sense together. And the wonderful thing about the truth of the gospel is that it will help you make sense of the world as you find it to be. So it helps you make sense of what you see in your own you know thought life and your own life helps you make sense of the fact that you know you you're so devastated at the death of loved ones because death is this great imposition that we we desperately need to be rescued from. And so having a kind of two Adam theology which says here comes yeah here comes a second Adam who's going to rise up to life is is such a way to help people understand the world around them.
SPEAKER_07And and may I say what I also love that you do is that is that people hate it when we say life is binary but you're either hanging off you know as the Puritan says you're either hanging off the belt of Adam or you're off the belt of of of Christ. It's one or the other and then that gets people to start understanding the radical nature of what it means to be born again and to be in Christ. And you know again going back to the one but but I I I I love I love again that the Trinity says as you as you do that I'm in a I'm in a there's a there's an eternal relationship I'm invited in. There's a dance of love and Rico come in here's the doorway the cross the cross is the doorway grace is the doorway to that relationship and then it's one or the other are you in Adam or are you in Christ and I I I love the binary I love the fact that there's a cutting edge with that that that um teaching yes yeah the two divide the world be one be one with Christ.
SPEAKER_11And you've mentioned the born again thing as well and and like however little biblical literacy our friends might have they still they still have heard the phrase born again and I I find there's a there's a lot of um yeah it's it's really helpful to to say have you heard of that phrase born again well that's what this is all about we're born once into this Adamic kind of selfish humanity it's the Christmas tree that's that's cut down you need a different kind of humanity you need to be born again and so let's let's just think about that one point then and union with Christ um tell me why shouldn't evangelist be interested in in talking about union with Christ isn't isn't that just discipleship material for the for the theologian down the track my brother if if I don't understand union with Christ when I get rejected in evangelism I don't know where I'm gonna go you know so so I long for for for the righteous of Christ the grace that that comes with union with Christ for for my for the people I'm seeking to evangelize but above all for me you know because you know whether they accept or reject me doesn't make me valuable.
SPEAKER_07What makes me valuable is Christ died for me. And if I've got that relationship at right at the center so I don't live for approval but from it all those phrases that that keep the gospel going out because we are going to get rejected as we you know Jesus said if they hated me they'll hate you that that this is a tough we the message is pretty clear but the nature of getting it out there is rejection and therefore union in Christ and again this is what I think you're doing so well with the Trinity with in Adam and in Christ and then with union with Christ on all three you're training and teaching the Christians who aren't clear. So there are two things that that 321 does on the one hand of course it's an evangelistic course but as I've got my leaders doing it as I'm doing it myself it's going to get me clearer on these essentials that will cause me to rejoice in Christ far more. So you're all running a course is always doing two things you're evangelizing and your discipling and I think I think all three of these truths are quite neglected.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_06And again that's why I think that you know it's wonderful at you know you've been this you've been covering this material as you say from 2011 but it's wonderful to have it again launched again at the aging as ever as you were sort of saying about that you're evangelizing and and you're discipling one of the most refreshing things that people can do for their own Christian life is to go through the gospel again, go through the basics again go through the the thing and just just remind themselves of the fact that being a Christian is actually good news. Like it's actually a good thing. It's like you should be really thrilled about this. And so the number of people who've obviously trained uh to do Christianity explored courses over the years and then who've led them and just found their faith just to be just so thrilled.
SPEAKER_07Yeah me delighted yeah me me doing Christianity explored yeah absolutely well you're you know you're you're either a reservoir or a river so it's either right just what can you tell me a reservoir just flows into me or every you're listening but you're listening to pass it on. Yeah and I think you know we've got to create rivers. You then my son be strong in the grace of Christ Jesus the things you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who can teach others you know that sense of disciple making disciples of Christ and particularly I think with with you know again I've spent quite a lot of my time with alpha males if alpha males begin to be doing this they then develop their own little church families that they're having to nurture and then the Christian faith takes off for them because that because that you know they're they're always they're always thinking well how do I pass that on but if it's just this is for me then then then then there's you know reservoirs die they don't have the fresh water just one thing to throw in on that that means that if I'm running 321 and one night no one turns up but it's it's you know we're doing week two and we're in Adam or in Christ it's amazing for the Christians to be reminded of that. Yes we're all going to go home with thoughts being taken captive for Christ. So you know I mean I'm doing that with Mark's gospel but this is this is much far less well known than Mark's gospel these truths particularly how we use them evangelistically so don't be discouraged if you're running it in week two people don't turn up and then you know because it's great to be going over it.
SPEAKER_11Yeah yeah so our strap line at Speak Life is we want to captivate church and world with the love of Jesus and and in that order church and world um out we go. So um Rico you've you've had Had a sneak peek. A lot of the people on the call uh will not have seen uh the opening episode that you have seen. So we we gave you privileged access uh and uh set the scene for people. We we are on a spaceship. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Um well I I I look, I think I think what you're doing brilliantly is you are painting some pictures of different people on a spaceship, and you're you're allowing the person watching to relate to one or or the other of them. And I think that you know, so there's Doc, who's the sort of science-minded guy who thinks, well, this world looks as though it was designed by someone, and again, you know, that's that that that's amazing. And then there's Sasha, who's I think, as I remember, um, pretty cynical about all of it. Right. And then there's Hope, who's like, oh, you know, I'm sure there's something there, I can feel that. But but that they're all there with these worldviews, but then you know, what is it's a brilliant way of doing the incarnation. Someone comes in from outside and and and and um look I've only watched it once, but they they they come in to speak into the situation, yeah. Right, and therefore you've you've you've got that sense of wouldn't we all have to listen if someone was coming from outside our world to explain it and indeed to rescue us?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_07Um, and of course, that's a lovely picture of first of all, you're engaging people with Sasha, hope, and Doc in terms of which one can they most relate to, but then you're starting to say, is is there a source of information? Is there someone who comes from outside who can speak in and and really understands? Um, and again, the the visuals are are just captivating. But does that is that is that am I making it? You've got it, you've got to read it. We haven't gone out, you haven't you didn't teach me on that. I just watched it, but that's what I was thinking.
SPEAKER_06You know, good, yeah. No, we could you picked up what Glenn was laying down, so that's all it's good. Glad that it's it's clear at the moment. Um, we might have, I can't actually tell from the chat of the video. Do we got some questions? Have people been wonderful. Typing away.
SPEAKER_08So Thomas, Thomas, what are the questions? Hello. Yes. Uh so we have uh a couple of questions here. So someone was saying, is it a course that people do privately on their phone, or do they come along to a session at their local church?
SPEAKER_11Why not have both? Um so absolutely, um, so this I I take it it's a question about 321. Um but yeah, absolutely. Um we think you will have a really good experience of it on your phone, but we hope that if this is your only exposure to the gospel, it is a stepping stone to be able to do courses that are held in person. And within the the learning platform, you can find a church that is running it in person. And in the same way that people uh will watch uh sermons online for six months before showing up in church, um, if they come across it in an online capacity, we pray that first of all, it's it's because that a Christian has shared it with them. Uh, and and second of all, we pray that they find their way to that find a course and do it in person. So you can absolutely do it in person as as church. And if your church wants to run it, uh get in touch with us, courses at speaklife.org.uk, and we'll give you everything you need to run it. Uh, and in fact, you don't even need our permission. You can just go to three21courses.com and start running it and let us know how that's going. So usually that works well as a four-week course, um, and you can do that in person in the same way that you'd do a Hope Explored or a Life Explorer or a Christianity Explored. Uh, but we have designed it with the first user in mind being the person who has it on their phone or on their iPad late at night under the duvet, um, just being absorbed by this in the same way that you would be absorbed by reading mere Christianity. In the same way that you'd be absorbed by so it in one sense it fits um as as much into the category of a Christian book, but with lots of bells and whistles, um, as it does fit into the category of a Christian course.
SPEAKER_06So, yeah, we've got uh lots of people on the call who are piloting 321 in-person courses this term. So uh we're gonna be chatting to uh a couple of them later on.
SPEAKER_07So but you know, I've got to say we just gotta pray that people are chatting if they can. I mean, the way you end that first session with who has shaped your thinking the most, wouldn't it be lovely to if they can chat about that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_07I think we've just got to pray that they're they they're in relationship with someone. But yes, yeah, yes, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06And we're looking at ways to use maybe those technology to to link people up with others who are kind of um in churches uh who would like to you know guide people through 321. And so we're gonna sort of dive into what's involved in making that happen so that people can find someone to chat those questions through with. Yeah.
SPEAKER_11But yeah, but but hopefully they're doing it because their friend has had a conversation with them and the Christian friend has texted, you gotta try this, let's let's meet up for a drink and talk about it. So that's that's the ideal scenario, we we think. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. What else have we got, Thomas? Wonderful. Uh someone who used the red jumper version uh to shape a baptism course for the last few years uh said it lent itself brilliantly to the subject of baptism. Has some thought been given to how the new series might be used in a similar way?
SPEAKER_11Absolutely. So if you want to do a baptismal preparation in Anglican settings, um it can often um uh make a lot of sense to do three baptismal preparation classes in which you would just do the session that's that's three, the God session, the two session about the world, the one session about you, and you can you can you can drop off um the the first two videos and and just do um those those three sessions. And it begins with Christ's baptism and it finishes with your baptism. And I know a lot of Anglican vicars um who use it for either baptism prep or marriage prep, because again, three sessions is is quite normal to to do. So you can do this material in in three sessions and um that's that's very easy for you to do, or you can do it for in four sessions, or if you really like it, you can do one video per night and stretch it over eight sessions if you if you like, but it it really is flexible like that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. But also however many of the sessions you're doing in person, because you're giving people access to the material online as well, yeah, it's right there for them. So um yeah, trying to make it as as easy for people in churches to use as possible. Um recognizing the fact that um people's contexts are very different, people's availability is very different, you know. Some cultures, uh you know, communities are very like diary-oriented, and it's like, oh, what are you doing on the 27th of November? Oh well, I've got a thing at seven. And other people just don't live like that. And and so trying to serve uh the wider church uh in as flexible a way as possible, giving people as many access points as we can.
SPEAKER_07What I'd chip in on that would be um the people I've seen coming to Christ in recent years have had one person walking with them. There's somebody who's doing the one Thessalonians. We were a mother and like a father, we we loved you so much, we shared our life, we held our breath to know you were well, we prayed for you night and day. So, however the material's going out, I think you've got to have someone alongside who's who's who's really sharing life. And I think, you know, in the 1990s at All Souls, people were low-hanging fruit, they knew they should come along to Christian Explored or whatever, because granny had always prayed for them and they'd had a primary school education and they had it in their blood. I think now they just need someone with them. So I think that that when I train people for Christian Explored, my opening hour of training is about being a one-to-one worker. Then I get to the material. I say I'm teaching you to be a one-to-one worker. That's that comes before whatever course you're leading on, because that's what's needed as we give the help these people humanly speaking get going. We need God to do the miracle, and wonderfully, the material on 321 is so orthodox and straight and breaches Christ, but they do need someone with them. I I may be wrong, I don't know what your experience, but that's no, I think that's exactly right.
SPEAKER_06And whilst we recognise, you know, I think we've all learned quite a lot from the the Talking Jesus survey, um, and seeing how many people, you know, very sadly at the moment in the UK don't know a Christian. That the church needs needs lots and lots of ways to help people to engage with the gospel. But exactly as you're saying, Rico, our real target audience is the Christians who are already engaging with Speak Life who send their friend that they know that they're living life alongside, they send them the link and they're checking in with them, finding how it's going, inviting them along to the church community.
SPEAKER_11Do it together with a laptop urban, get into the conversation. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Um, but yeah. Um, let's can we take one more if we've got another one?
SPEAKER_08Um, yeah, yeah. Will Nate do a youth 321 like Soul with the same trendy haircut? Wow.
SPEAKER_06Um no, I don't think we will. Um yeah, well though Seoul has now been I am I'm chopped liver. There is now Rico Vox.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, we've done Vox.
SPEAKER_06Youth Christianity Explored is was released last weekend, was it?
SPEAKER_07Or yeah, there's a there's a there are two presenters, but there are nine, there are six kids doing it, and the idea is that the little youth clubs would sit and feel those six they could really connect with as they do the material together.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_07So it's trying to people of their own age engaging you know different cultural backgrounds.
SPEAKER_11Brilliant. Enrico, just briefly, what's what's new and next for you and for Christianity Explored?
SPEAKER_07Um we we with Christianity Explored, we always want to talk about sin, and we in order that people get to the cross and then they get grace, and if they get grace, the Christian life is absolutely wonderful. But how you talk about sin again using Mark's gospel, we're having to work out. So I suppose the big thing I'm doing at the moment is I've realized that the sin talk is the tenants, because you know, God's made the world, it's a wonderful world. He couldn't have done more for those people in the vineyard. They they killed his prophets, they killed his son. What do you expect God to do? So I think I'm I can see there's a new sin talk in the tenants that I think the present culture could really hear. And as Lewis said, you taught me this, Nate. You know, give them stories, people get inside stories. So we're trying to we're gonna redo Christianity explored, but try and and again do something on the compassion of Jesus. He's not just powerful and authoritative, he's good. Yeah, gotta get got to emphasize that more in the present culture than you did in the past. Yeah, so so yeah, working what Mark's Gospel is an amazing text, but it's working out what's the best way to say things in the modern culture.
SPEAKER_06No, that is really helpful going for yeah, from Mark 12 rather than going from I think seven and two, was that what yeah, rather than just just statements we're saying here's a story, can't you relate to what sin is?
SPEAKER_07It's terrible to treat the owner of the vineyard like this.
SPEAKER_06Um Rico, we're gonna uh give people opportunity to to ask some more questions once we go past nine o'clock, which is only about 40 seconds away. So uh just very briefly before we do that, um let me uh here's how we're gonna do this. I'm gonna tell everybody uh about the new thing we'd actually like you to do, in addition to sending everyone in your WhatsApp contacts uh the 321 course, which is can you get out your phone right now? Uh here's what we're we're mindful of. Get out your your mobile phone, your your telecommunication device. Yep. And can you open up your your clock or alarm app? Okay. So uh go to that, and then we'd like you to go to your alarms. We'd like you to add an alarm. Oh. And we'd like you to add the alarm to be 3.21 p.m. Okay. So 3 2 1 p.m.
SPEAKER_11It could be 15 20. If your phone is like mine, it could be 15 21. Otherwise, you're getting up very early tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_06So it's gonna be 3.21 p.m. Set an alarm for tomorrow, so that's Tuesday, the third day. Okay, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, the third day. The third day, right? You got it. Third day, 3.21, that alarm is gonna go off. Label that speak life pray. And then this is what we want you to do. When that alarm goes off, and you might be in the middle of the school run, or you might be, I don't know, finishing off the crossword, or you might be in the middle of a spreadsheet, or maybe having a cup of tea. But the point is we want you to pray for speak life for 321 and specifically for the courses that are running right now in the churches that are going to be running uh this material over the next few weeks. Uh, we've got courses running in Northampton, in Southampton, in New South Wales, in Old North Wales. We've got them in Romford, we've got them in Wichita, Kansas. They are running right now uh around the world. That people are running 321, and we are desperate for people to pray for that evangelistic ministry which is going on. And maybe that's an opportunity for you to be reminded to send the 321course.com link to a friend that you've been in gospel conversations with uh for maybe weeks, months, or years. Um, that's the plan.
SPEAKER_11And hopefully, perhaps Rich and Alex, if they're there after nine o'clock, can let us know how one of those courses is doing. They've been running a course here in Eastbourne. This will be their second 321 course, and I would love to hear how it's been going because they had their first evening this week. Oh last week, rather.
SPEAKER_06So that's what we're going to do. Now I said I'd let you go to bed at nine o'clock. It's just past nine, I think. So if you do need to go, you can leave without shame. We've bet we've been glad you were here. Okay. We've been absolutely delighted to be able to share the launch of 321 with you. Uh but if you do need to go, cheery bye. Go and share. Go and share. 321course.com. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. But if you're staying, who's staying? We've got lots of people still staying. I can see your smiling, waving faces. Look at your waving faces. Waving little screens. We're delighted. Uh, you're gonna stick around and we're gonna have some further QA. But before we do that, we're gonna chat with Alex and Rich. Can we get Alex and Rich from Livingstones Church, who started their first session of 321 last week. We'd love to have a little chat with you.
SPEAKER_04Definitely past my bedtime now.
SPEAKER_06It's a school night as well, so sorry about that.
SPEAKER_11And the the colour you haven't quite turned into a pumpkin, but you've got a you've got a pumpkin. She's the original orange video, and oh yeah, Rich is on a future green one.
SPEAKER_09Future, yeah. Rich is in the future.
SPEAKER_06So how's it going? Um what can we what can we hear from out there on the front lines?
SPEAKER_09Um yeah, so we uh ran the first session of our second course last Tuesday. We ran the course uh in its previous iteration, but this time last year. Um we had a a fantastic uh experience with it. Um we had six people um that took the course last year and uh all of them stayed the course. Um I don't think there's there can be uh a much greater tribute than that. And we then um carried on with several of them um up until Easter, didn't we? Um just meeting with them regularly. Um and one of them has actually come back and uh was on the course uh last week, so uh liked it so much she wanted to do it again. Um we uh it's been encouraging, I think, to hear uh some of the things that have been said tonight because we were a little bit despondent last week. Um we had a list of people that uh had expressed an interest and we were hoping would be with us. Um we had three people that came. Oh cool, uh we were a little bit uh disappointed with that. There's there's two or three others that there was a possibility that they wouldn't make the first one, but they were hoping to make the second. And while we've been on this course tonight, we've heard that one of them isn't going to make it. So again, uh it's it's very easy to get despondent about numbers, but um last week we had a a wonderful time. We were just in one group together. Um, I think I've I've heard this said um recently in in these calls that we've had um uh the you know sometimes the smaller group uh is uh is the better context. You know, we rather than us sort of standing and and presenting to this this uh assembled group, we were all sitting in a circle together, it was much more informal, um perhaps a little bit uh easier for people coming into this context with um with no precedent. Um and the the conversations we had um were wonderful. Uh uh the material is is fantastic, the new material. So um, yeah, you know, it's very easy to get despondent when you're hoping a certain number of people are gonna come and they don't. But actually it's about the people that are there and and it was hugely encouraging. Yeah.
SPEAKER_11Yeah. It's almost never the people you expect to be there, and then some other people you don't expect to be there are there. And and and hopefully because there's so much of the material online as well, you know, if if people skip a week or or miss things, there's uh there's some some obvious ways to sort of catch up. And you're you're you're go on.
SPEAKER_04I was just gonna say there's the couple of people who didn't come. Um I've shared I've shared the platform with one who is a colleague who I'm still praying will join us tomorrow. But she was I th I said to her, Glenn, exactly what you said. Like, this is designed for you to look at under your DVA when you snuggled up um in bed, and he and just knowing that about you, she said, I like this guy already. You know, so I'm hoping and praying that she has watched watched that first session. Um, so that was really useful. You know, she couldn't make week one, but I could use it to say, you know, don't worry, you haven't missed anything, you can catch up on it here. Um, and hope to see you next week. But another friend we've just been talking about her, who has been walking with us actually for a few years and is definitely on a journey, but hasn't stepped across the threshold of church, like um Rico was talking about, you know, learning to do church, and and she just freaked out last week and just could not come. But I'm kind of in two minds about whether to share the platform with her because I was saying to Rich just now, if if we do that, we're almost giving her the tools to not come into community, we're gonna make it possible for her then not to engage with with the community, but to engage with the material.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, but I think one of one of the beauties of the platform where we have managed to to um talk about the gospel, to to pray together, has been over breakfast. Um I don't know how often we try to meet, we don't meet as often as we'd like to, but you know, maybe once a month, once every other month, we've got together. And I I think probably where we'll end up is because of the the platform and the way the material is laid out. We would sit down with her on a series of Saturday mornings and we go through the content in that way.
SPEAKER_11I think on a previous phone call, we've been on a Zoom call, we've been on somebody saying that her primary mission field is with a whole bunch of young mums who just can't commit to coming out at at at late at night, and and just the flexibility of it means that yeah, it it it opens up so many uh other opportunities. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07But I do think and just to say, Glenn, just to say on that, this is heartbreaking work. Yeah, recruiting people, you know, getting people on courses, it's heartbreaking. I mean, I you know, don't I I always think of John the Baptist. There he was, he had Herod, they were halfway through a Christiane Explorer course and he got his head chopped off. That was disappointing. You know, just it's it's it's the hardest thing getting people on courses. Yeah, yeah. It's the hardest thing, but it it it's wonderful when they come and they get on community. Yeah, but I've it's it is we we we we're all we all I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly over 30 years have found that the hardest thing. And it's wonderful when they come and they just need you need to keep pursuing them, just keep going. So yeah.
SPEAKER_04Thank you for that encouragement, Rico, and especially what you said earlier about the union with Christ, and it because you know, anytime I engage with material, my you know, my faith just kind of mushrooms, and I'm like, I believe this. This is this is so encouraging. Um, and the reminder that it's not a rejection of us personally, um, and just the resilience. So the rejection we've had tonight, it's all because of the doctor's strikes, you know. So I'm sitting here fuming about the doctor's striking because I'm thinking it's because of you, this woman can't come to 321 tomorrow.
SPEAKER_11There are other battles going on.
SPEAKER_09Yeah. It's it's God that moves, you know, it's the Holy Spirit that can be because our job is to invite, our job is to be faithful with the material, and and God will do the rest. And and it's it's not about the numbers. And I just wanted to say that um one of the things that has attracted us as a church to running this course is the fact that it's only the the four weeks, and that was something that made it viable for us to lead as as parents. young children but also I think increasing their Rico again as you said you know it a generation are coming through now that you know where in the past people might have have been open to doing a two or three month course I think they're much less inclined to to do that life gets in the way so three or four weeks is is achievable realistic for people and they're much more likely to to engage in that and obviously because of the material that that surrounds the course they can come even if they miss one you know they can fill in the gaps or they can watch the videos online um so again you know we can sell it to them if you can't make it every week that doesn't matter just come along the first week or whatever um and and the rest will work itself out we we we wrote Hope Explored and three to one can do the same because to invite people to a Christiane explored that's seven weeks after Christmas on Easter is a long a big call but if you say look just come for three weeks three two one why don't you come for January three Wednesdays in January we're running this yeah I think people can do that but then it's a ramp because once they do that and they enjoy it and they get a taste for God's word we then found that a couple of weeks later they'd come on a seven week course.
SPEAKER_07So you know that they if we can get them on three weeks which is manageable then then that then the appetite grows and so I had a C table that Hope Explored for three weeks they all came back for the seven week Christianity Explored course.
SPEAKER_11Yes.
SPEAKER_06But but but it's the three to one or Hope Explored is that initial ramp and if you're saying to someone you know Alpha Course Christianity Explored that's a big call Christmas and Easter yeah and of course we've seen uh participation in so many different areas of life drop off since COVID where people are just struggling to kind of commit to things and and go to things in person. There's all sorts of additional anxieties that people might still have about kind of committing to things um but yeah I mean wonderful to hear you know the you have three people um you know I think so many of us have been part of uh of large scale churches at uh sorry large scale courses at big churches where there have been table leaders multiple tables of people going through material uh week on week but typically it is about much smaller groups and whether that is you know uh the same size as a home group or a fellowship group in someone's house or you are able to open up the church hall and get a few tables of people there it's just we're all looking to just share what we love and uh that is really the heart behind speak life and the 321 and we've been praying for you guys Alex and Rich we we prayed for 49 different church leaders in their churches this morning um all those different churches running running 321 and uh so it's our privilege to keep on praying with you and if there's anything we can do just just let us know.
unknownThank you.
SPEAKER_06And all those people on the school run tomorrow will be praying for you too. Yeah. That's good.
SPEAKER_11Awesome. Thank you very much thank you so much for your uh contribution.
SPEAKER_01Do we have any other questions?
SPEAKER_06We might have a couple we have one thing have we mentioned yet ask Glenn anything we should mention it whilst people are putting their digital hands up.
SPEAKER_11So one way that we hope to serve especially the in-person courses is that um you can say to any guest on your course um that's a great question let me have a go at answering it and you can ask that question of Glenn on the 26th of October at 8 p.m and it'll be a a large Zoom call just like this one. And we hope to run these on uh perhaps a monthly basis where yeah people doing the course from all over the world can just ask questions and it's a little bit of a backstop um that you can have as a table leader running through 321 and they might ask you a question about Adam and like how do I answer that? I'm sure you'll answer it really, really well. But you can also additionally say to your your friend or your your guest why don't you ask it on the 26th of October and one of the things that that would do is is also really hook them into the the kind of the 321 community and get them uh on board with all sorts of other materials that we've got on the platform such as a reading plan that takes you through John's gospel, uh all 21 chapters over 21 days and uh lots of other FAQ questions as well.
SPEAKER_06Get your email address in, get the password, you'll find all this information it's all there. It's all there right there you don't need uh we've we've hopefully covered everything. Now I think I might have just spotted a northern uh Welsh well he's actually from South Wales mountain biking minister who's on the call. Is Paul Hadley here? Is it all right? Can we just have a little chat about the our interesting meeting with you for just a couple of seconds. I think it's been one of the most encouraging aspects of our sort of ministry here. I know James Place our ops director was really thrilled by uh the story you're about to share. So um Paul just tell us how did you get in touch with us at Speak Life and uh how were we able to possibly help you with your evangelistic endeavors?
SPEAKER_10I was listening to uh a short little uh snippet of a podcast um about two mountain bikers and I overheard them uh talking about the the fact that one of them was reading a Bible and was struggling with it um to which I thought well I can't I can't I can't have that so I know can't have him struggle so I just sent him an email um and sort of said if you want to help John read it or understand it I'm more than you know happy to um yeah you know take you through it. Uh then he responded and a few emails passed and then all of a sudden he asked me to go on the podcast. Then then I was a bit sort of anxious thinking I've got no sort of media you know this is terrifying enough um no media kind of skill so I just got in touch with you guys and just asked for a bit of advice and help you know what were the likely sort of clangers that I was gonna you know make and the rest of it and ended up um yeah chat chatting to you late really helpful um some really helpful pointers um yeah and it ends up after three days I think it had 46000 downloads audio downloads and it's been viewed yeah about two and a half thousand times on YouTube so yeah chatting about the Bible and chatting about Jesus.
SPEAKER_06So what's the name of that podcast? Uh the ride companion the ride companion so it's basically just for like mountain biking guys to have a podcast but they don't just talk about mountain biking they're talking about everything and so well this is the bizarre thing they nearly always just talk about mountain biking.
SPEAKER_10Oh wow they've only ever really had Red Bull athletes and the rest of that on if you look at their back catalogue okay this is with a complete segue from from what they normally do.
SPEAKER_06And so I would yeah it was very let me just shout you out because so uh Paul came up with a an absolutely brilliant mountain bike context to explain why how Jesus connects to the Old Testament or in terms of that Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Now just let me see if I I got it right. There's a thing called Rampage which is a global mountain biking event that takes place in the desert. Have I got that right?
SPEAKER_05Correct.
SPEAKER_06And in the days and weeks before there are people who are sent out to to dig big trenches and fill sandbags so that you create a mountain bike riding course. Correct yeah and you were saying imagine if this was being held somewhere in the world where they had no interest or no knowledge of mountain biking and they'd be totally confused about this whole digging and sandbag scenario and he said if you were then able to show them and I think you might have mentioned a famous mountain biker so I don't know who that would be but some guy who's doing all his tricks on the mountain bike saying this is why we're digging these trenches this is why we're filling these sandbags it's all in preparation for the arrival of the guy on the bicycle and so really that kind of whole trajectory building up to the incarnation from the Old Testament I was just like blown away that that Paul had just nailed an incarnational illustration specific for the mountain biking podcast listeners everywhere. So I was very proud of it.
SPEAKER_10It must be said that there was a lot of prayer going on behind the doors you know you know from my home church at the top so yeah yeah there seemed to be a lot of openness like from from from both those guys. Oh amazing and and and conversate some conversations have continued um uh one of the conversations um he's phoned me recently because he's done a recent audio podcast it didn't go on youtube um uh and he was a little bit sort of disturbed by it um someone talking to people who were dead and so he phoned me for a bit of advice and chatting through that so and and he's and he's um I don't know if you know but Glenn but he's sort of even promoted your book on um Instagram saying how much of a good read is it and he recommends it to others to read. There you go.
SPEAKER_06So amazing amazing uh Paul that's just great that you know in this kind of new media ecology with all these weird people sitting on USB microphones talking about the the things they love and uh being able to share the gospel in that scenario we're delighted that you reached out and and as I say yeah we were praying for you um all the way through that so yeah I certainly certainly appreciated all that prayer really felt carried and lifted through it.
SPEAKER_10Yeah.
SPEAKER_11Oh brilliant oh good to see you man thank you thanks for joining us thank you so much and isn't that the way that people process stuff they they've got the podcast in while they're cycling and so yeah what what are we doing that's reaching out to people that consume information and get their head into subjects via Audible and via long YouTube videos and via podcasts and via online digital self-serve courses perhaps we hope.
SPEAKER_06Yeah that's the plan. We do have one more question.
SPEAKER_08How does the material work across denominational lines? I go to military academies across Europe to reach students and particularly right now I in Lithuania and Latvia I am ministering primarily to Catholics.
SPEAKER_11I th yeah we were talking about this the other day um about you know I I am thrilled when anybody wants to do the material and if anyone if anyone wants to receive the material and look at Trinity Adam and Christ in union with Christ in a scriptural way I I'm just thrilled. If the Roman Catholic Church came in and the Pope said I could open up 321 to a hundred thousand new churches if you just tweak this the answer would obviously be no but yeah would we be thrilled if Christians or Orthodox or or people from any other denomination wanted to do the material? Absolutely hallelujah and and and then there might be a certain attraction especially to more traditional um uh denominations because going into Trinity is something that actually Catholics and Orthodox are a bit more used to doing and talking about Adam and Christ in union with Christ in some uh traditions is is actually uh a lot more comfortable for for some denominations than than it is for actually ones that we're more familiar with. So if they want to do it I'm thrilled. If they want to change it I'm not but if they want to do it I'm thrilled.
SPEAKER_06But so what the context there was uh Thomas was a reaching out through military academies.
SPEAKER_11Yeah okay get in touch we'd love to we'd love to see if we can help that to happen. The the videos that we produced have been translated into into loads of different languages and given how much animation there is with 321 it's it's an eminently translatable resource. So do get in touch.
SPEAKER_06So just to clarify the latest iteration of 321 hasn't yet been translated into multiple languages but the orange video and the blue video I think are available in other translations so that should be available and you can get in touch with us.
SPEAKER_04Amazing we do have one raised hand a raised hand I see hand Alex B go for it oh Alex Hi it's me again sorry we've we've changed room because we're making dinner now um but um I do have a question and I was thinking along the lines because Rich said with our church um we when we ran the course last year we had this small group of six people um and we met with them we continue to meet with them and we actually just started a journey through John's gospel with them which was just incredible to me and Rich in terms of unpacking it and and them seeing it for the first time. But my question is what do you think should come next? So you do these four weeks with these people what if you have a real sense that we had of community and we asked them, you know, what would you like but they did want to keep meeting and I just wonder what your thoughts are on what comes after.
SPEAKER_11Rico's absolutely right that you get someone on for a three week course and then on week three they're all up for what do we do next and and we very often recommend doing Life Explorer doing Christianity explored there's lots of lots of uh other great material out there. Word one to one is another great John's gospel based um uh resource um we with um uh with 321 we've got a a a learning we've got a reading plan um that goes through John's gospel as well with um questions that people can kind of have afterwards we are adding to 321 another course so this time next year we'll be launching out into the world how to speak life and that's that's more for Christians um to help you in your personal evangelism but we also have a goal of wanting to take that uh book that Paul mentioned um the air we breathe and make that into an evangelistic course uh using that same platform and and so this is this is part of a a much larger sort of project that's called charable faith um so that the the there really is you know a quite substantial resource that's that's there um for for Christians to use so um yeah we could we could name a number of different sort of Christian resources that we would recommend to come next and we're trying to make some more ourselves.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And I think part of it is yeah and as the course ends uh it there is that real encouragement to embrace the new fight and the new family. Oh there was the third F. I've forgotten friendship. Friendship new friendship new fight new family the F. And uh that really is an encouragement to as as Glenn was saying it starts you know uh session three starts with Jesus baptism and then we get to um the final session and we're thinking about whether people will be baptized into the church because joining the community of of the church is going to be part of that. And that's what we really believe in. That's the institution the Lord Jesus has has uh established that's the one that's going to outlast all the corporations and other institutions in the world it is the church and so um even maybe have those guys been up for church are the steps have those so what was interesting when we we asked them what they'd like to do we gave them a choice you know should we keep meeting on Tuesday evening or shall we just have a WhatsApp group or will you meet with us on a Sunday um and what we what we ended up doing is yes they did they came to our church but we in the end did our kind of John study during the sermon slot at church.
SPEAKER_04So um and we're a small church that's you know there's only what 30 to 40 adults in our church so it's but crossing the threshold you know I think they were up for that knowing that they were then coming to our our little safe pod during during the sermon slot.
SPEAKER_09I think the the um I don't whether you call it a disappointment but we we carried on with them up until Easter but we might have only got to John 4 or John 5 and that you know it although you know John 1 to 5 is you know a wonderful section of the um gospel to take them through it felt like we kind of run out of time and it it would be nice to feel like we had a bit more structure. I'm I'm quite intrigued I mean I feel like maybe Chris I've done Christianity explored and maybe that that feels like it's obviously a very different way of of going through the gospel but it it maybe something like Hope Explored might be the next logical step so they they've got a little bit of an understanding how do you then start to take them you know take them on from there.
SPEAKER_06And then there's also discipleship explored uh which is um part of that that sort of portfolio of of of stuff that takes people through Philippians um yeah we've we've used that with lots of people um and and at that stage if you guys like each other and you're in each other's lives then on one level um that's more important than like which which particular book of the Bible you'll you're you're looking at but you know if you if you guys are wanting to open up the scriptures together then I mean that's the that's where the power is as Rico says yeah yeah I want to know what you're having for your dinner though that's what I'm being sort of sidetracked by now we're in the kitchen I'm like there's movement what's the story here there's a there are I'm making tomorrow's dinner Rich is making tomorrow's lunches we've had our dinner wow you are forward planners I'm embedded we're not behind we're way ahead we're both way we're very impressed but we won't detract from the focus of three tool well thank you very much again um I think I think we might be uh allowing everyone I think so it is get themselves it is now 9 30 yeah it's nine thirty um just a final thing um obviously three two one is free um and we want it to be free for everyone but you will see when you go onto the learning platform uh that there is an opportunity to pay it forward um so if you use 321 and you you find it uh a real encouragement to your faith and uh you share it with others then you know please if you would like to uh you have the opportunity there to to to pay it forward so that we can get more people um to be able to engage with the gospel using this particular scheme of 321 and we will continue as Glenn was saying to create shareable faith content that really is going to be the the speak life uh plan of action over the next few years uh to try to work out ways that we can make really high quality evangelistic content that people can share without shame and they can uh pass on to their friends online that they will be encouraged by as they engage with it themselves and that they will in turn then pass it on to others uh as Rico was saying earlier on um huge thanks to Rico yeah thank you Rico is he is he there is he still there have you uh he might be had to head off that's uh we're very glad that you were able to join us and delighted to be the first zoom call in uh the new TICE residents yeah now the internet's got sorted out thanks everyone else for joining us too yes uh we've loved having you here we are glad you joined us yeah and uh we would love to know what you make of 321 yes we want to make it better so please give us all the feedback you can and please just get it out there uh share it far and wide you can broadcast it or you can narrow cast it or you can just show it to a friend on your phone.
SPEAKER_11You can cast it.
SPEAKER_06Just cast it yes a Chromecast or whatever. Right I think it's time for bed now I think we should have a prayer before we go uh who should we get to pray for us um Thomas Thomas would you do the honours? You're off screen so you'll be a wonderful voice for us.
SPEAKER_08Let's pray well Heavenly Father thank you so much for our time together. Thank you for what we have seen of Jesus and we thank you so much for this resource. We thank you for bringing together the resources and the people uh to get it made over the years and as it goes out now as your word and spirit go out uh they know we know that they will not return to you empty handed and so we pray for all those who we've heard from tonight who are running the course who are sending the course to their friends uh sharing it on podcasts we pray that people may encounter Jesus for your glory amen thank you to right then see you very soon thanks for joining us let's do the zoom bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye yes do unmute if you like and to play us out yeah here is Thomas on the side special treat for those of you still here Thomas Thorgood saxophonistics Jordan there now plays no careless whisper he is gonna do it