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Glad You Asked (DVD)The gospel for postmodern cynicsGLAD YOU ASKED Quite simply this is brilliant! Designed for today’s postmodern cynic, this new evangelistic tool is ideal to help your friends think through their own world view and see why the Christian world view is so compelling and worth serious investigation. MethodUp to now, all the courses investigating the Christian faith begin with a presentation of the gospel, often for 20 minutes or so, and then we ask our unbelieving friends if they have any questions. Doubts, ideas and questions are raised, and we are put on the defensive. We are forced to use all the apologetic reasons we can muster, or resort to personal experience. But now for something completely different: Glad You Asked (GYA). From the very beginning, the viewer is asked for their opinion. So they start to realise they have a worldview — whether previously articulated or not — and are invited to explain it. As the viewer questions their own worldviews and where their views came from, they are also presented with the Christian gospel. This interactive method is very appropriate for today’s postmodern world. We have found that non-Christians respond better to it than previous modernist approaches. ContentThe aim of the course is to deal with the major arguments that are raised against faith and then move to a clear presentation of Christ. In the first six sessions, obstacles to faith are peeled away. It quickly starts to become clear that the best worldview is the biblical one. As questions are tackled, our non-Christian friends have expressed surprise that GYA asks the same questions that they are asking! The series starts out much earlier than other courses, presuming no belief or knowledge. ‘Does it matter whether God exists or not?’ is the first topic. Isn’t that a great question? Next it discusses reasons for God’s existence, before moving through apologetic questions about suffering, the Bible, other religions, hypocrisy and on to Jesus. The second week on science and the existence of God is quite demanding. But having used this course four times we have found it is possible to nurse non-scientists and non-philosophers through the material. Although they may not grasp the finer points of the science and philosophy, they understand that it is both scientifically and philosophically reasonable to believer in a Creator. The week on other religions is excellent. It is genius to ask representatives from the five major religions (Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity) to answer the same questions: ‘What is the goal of your religion?’ ‘Who is God?’ ‘What happens after we die?’ ‘What do you think of other religions?’ ‘Who is Jesus? ‘and ‘How do I join your religion?’ We found that our non-believing friends appreciated the fact that the religions are allowed to speak for themselves, and concluded that Christianity held together much more coherently than its rivals. It became clear to them that Jesus Christ stands supreme. Consequently they did not seem so distressed that Jesus is unique and the only way to God. Session 4 deals with the reliability of Scripture. After that, from session 5 (hypocrisy), the Bible is used as the basis of discussion. Viewers are asked to look at a section of the Bible every week and try to answer questions about the passage before a person on the DVD gives the explanation. Once the apologetic topics have been considered, covering the major blockages to faith, the viewers are asked to consider a question that was asked by the Lord Jesus: * Why do you call me good? These deal with the divinity of Christ, the atonement and sin, the resurrection and, finally, the need for a response. The week on the atonement is very moving and deals thoroughly with our sinfulness and Christ’s death as the required atoning sacrifice. There is a biblical momentum in the course, climaxing with a superb picture of the Lord Jesus, and the demands he makes on all of us. PresentationIn each session one or two specialists speak just for three to five minutes at a stretch, and then a question pops on the screen. The DVD pauses as the viewers discuss the question posed. The talks are interspersed with testimonies, giving a good mix of the academic and the personal. This style fits well in today’s sound-bite, TV age yet it doesn’t trivialise the arguments. Each speaker points the audience to Scripture and encourages the viewer to search for a relationship with God. The faithfulness to God’s word is first-rate. LeaderThe course relies on a leader who is prepared to put in the hard preparatory work and guide a discussion well — not by giving all the answers, but by teasing out the views of everyone watching, and keeping the keen Christians quiet! Thoughtful consideration is needed on how much time to allow for discussion on each question. The screen becomes a tremendous resource for pressing one’s friends into thinking through their own position with regard to the Lord Jesus. They should be good at befriending people and inviting them for coffee/meals during the course. The leaders notes suggest that Group Exercises at the beginning of each session are good as ice-breakers. We did not use them, but launched straight in with the DVD after coffee and good cake. AudienceWe have tried this course with students, teenagers — the original target audience was Western Europeans age 16-30 — and adults. It has worked really well in all cases with about eight people comfortably gathered round a TV and discussing this material. We use it as a pre-Christianity Explored (CE) course and find it leads into CE very well. Our adults going through CE are gradually coming to faith in Christ, but their keenness to explore Christ further and look at a gospel in its context was aroused by GYA. FriendshipsLike all courses the important work is done in the friendships made beforehand so that Christians bring along their unbelieving friends, and stay with them for the first few weeks. As the course starts much further back than any of the others we’ve used, it is ideal for postmoderns and people who don’t attend church. In fact, almost all our attendees didn’t attend church before they came on the course. Although it is suitable for complete outsiders, it is 100% faithful to the biblical gospel. But there would be no course if we did not encourage our congregations to pray for their friends and bring them along. With GYA we can be confident it will address the issues our non-believing friends are asking. CostThe cost is extremely low, especially for students, so it is well worth purchasing more than one DVD, which can be loaned to those who’ve missed a week. Our conclusionThis is the best material we have found so far to use with our complete ‘pagan’ friends. We warmly commend it for wider use. The GYA website includes some resources that are from the emergent church stable, and GYA does not endorse everything written in the books they mention. They also encourage people to use Christianity Explored, as we have done as a follow-on course. John and Daphne Ross,
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