Introducing friends to God through telling Two Ways to Live ‘as a long, intimate story’ is the basis of a new evangelistic course launched in Sydney this month.

Billed as ‘a new way of introducing the true and living God to a post-Christian society’, the 12-week Introducing God series aims to tell ‘the Bible’s big story’ by drawing on popular evangelistic tools. The theology of the Two Ways to Live tract is presented in ‘relational’ terms using the Alpha concept of a meal, video presentation and discussion. Sky News reporter Leigh Hatcher hosts the series, written and presented by Dominic Steele, pastor of Annandale Anglican Church and Christians in the Media. The video series is produced by Anglican Media.

According to organisers at St Paul’s, Carlingford, who have run the series three times in the last 12 months, four people became Christians and are now regular members of the church and five others are being followed up.

Mr Steele says the course allows people who have never thought about going to church ‘to see what it’s like to live as a Christian’. “The concept that Christ died for you doesn’t make any sense without a worldview that the God you’ve rejected is the God of the Bible who created the world,” he said. “We need to start evang-elism much further back.”

A typical course is conducted over a meal in a restaurant, club, church building or home.

Evangelist John Chapman believes Introducing God is the first of its kind to set out with a specific purpose to address the ‘new mindset’ of postmodernism. “The thing I like about it is that it gives you a sweep across the Bible, rather than jumping into Jesus straightaway,” said Mr Chapman. “More and more as we become biblically illiterate, we can’t take for granted that anyone has ever heard about the Bible’s worldview. Nearly all our apologetics up until now have been concerned with ‘if you present the truth to them, they will believe’. The postmodern mind doesn’t think there is any absolute truth. If God is there, he’s one among many.”

Genevieve Peters was not a Christian before she went through the course at Annandale Anglican Church, but is now convinced of her salvation.

“My brother has been a Christian for a while now and many times he’s tried to talk to me about it. I’ve basically replied by saying ‘when I’m ready, I’ll talk to you,’” Ms Peters said. “In a way that was [me saying] ‘I’m not ready to make any decisions about something that important yet,’ and I’d rather just live the way I am.

“I was apprehensive about coming because I was scared of being pushed into something I wasn’t sure existed yet. But it wasn’t like that at all. Instead of being confronted with people trying to convert me, I met with people who were at exactly the same stage as me. It was in a language that I understood.”

When Introducing God ended, Ms Peters joined a Bible study and is now attending church. “That whole concept was very new to me,” she says. “I remember the first time I prayed. I didn’t know how. I read the Bible and a lot of other books that help you learn about God and Jesus.  My   relationship with   God   now is just starting.”

Introducing God is distributed by Christians in the Media, the Bible Society NSW, the City Bible Forum and Evangelism Ministries. For details visit www.introducinggod.org” />