The Secret of Successful Christianity Explored Courses
by Darren Moore
Every Wednesday I pray with a small group of Ministers. A regular prayer request of mine is for the Christianity Explored course here at Chelmsford Presbyterian. Fellow GRUKologist, Michael Cochran said to me, “at some point you need to tell me your secret to constantly running Christianity Explored Courses.” Also, hot on the heals of Steffen’s blog On Worship in Wartime now really is the perfect time to run a Christianity Explored course. So unlike click bait that promises you the secret to successful weight loss or whatever it might be, I will not make you scroll through several ad laden pages, but come straight to the answer - “aim low and persist.”
Aim low. It is fantastic to have dozens at a CE course, starting with a meal before splitting into several breakout discussion groups. But for most churches, this is not going to happen. Most terms in the last 10 years that I have been at Chelmsford we have run CE. Usually one group in my lounge. My advice is, never wait for a critical mass. Just do it. Set a date and announce it, even with nobody coming. Run it for just one person. Then either adapt to a one-to-one or get a few people at church to join in. That way they meet some people and questions and conversation flows more naturally. Often being ready to start with me + 1 guest + 1 church member somehow grows to a few more. A small group (4-12) works perfectly. When we wait for a good number (however defined), we wait for a long time.
Persist. I say this nearly every term. A few times we had nobody. They said they would come but didn’t. What to do? Get over it and run another. Also like the above point - persist. Don’t wait for a time that suits everybody. In a small group, it is tempting to only run on weeks everyone can come. That is a sure way to never finish the course (the course is 7 weeks). Generally, I start by asking about people’s availability. It is sometimes wise to take a break in the middle, but generally, persist and lend DVDs or find YouTube links to help people catch up.
They are the two big ones. Of course there are others. For instance, do a course as your mid-week, just as you would do it normally. This has a few positive benefits: 1. Most churches include unconverted people, this way those that most need the course come along without feeling targeted. 2. It encourages Christians and helps them understand and therefore grow in their faith and witness. 3. To use a crass marketing term, it gives members confidence in the product. If you use CE regularly and as follow-up from missions and Christmas and members have first-hand experience of the course, they sell it out of enthusiasm not duty, like someone raving about their bread maker.
A few others: if you have a few more people, start with a meal and take a break between the talk and the question time with some cake and coffee (this is GRUK - the coffee has to be of an exceptional quality, Andy, Phil and I will explain another time how to do this for Michael, Josh and Jim who think they know what quality coffee is). Always be ready to “plug the next thing”. For example, not just at church but at any outreach event. Or, have a CE course ready to go and at the end of CE have a “what next?”, like a follow-up Life Explored Course, Discipleship Explored Course or the new 3-week Hope Explored Course. Maybe do an evaluation form to gauge where people were before the course and where they are now (more for them than for you, although it’s helpful pastorally).
It may also be helpful to train others to run the course, to assist if numbers increase, but generally so that it isn’t all dependent on one host.
Finally, and most importantly (because I was answering Michael and as a church planter, he already knows) … lots and lots of prayer. Which is how I started. Pray for the course and pray for each person invited … a lot.
Check out Christianity Explored Wesbite for their resources. For follow up courses, or to alternate with CE, the same people have produced, Discipleship Explored, Life Explored and the newer and shorter course, great after Easter: Hope Explored.
