by Shane Copeland, Pastor, St. George’s Anglican – Phoenix, AZ

During the Lenten Season, St. George’s went through Life Explored together. It was a wonderful time engaging with God and each other around the question, “What is the greatest gift God could give you?” St. George’s is only 6 months into its restart and in the early stages of simply building community. We have been meeting on Sunday nights for a meal and worship.

Life Explored is an evangelistic course put out by Christianity Explored Ministries. The whole ministry is produced by the Evangelical Anglican Church All Soul’s Langham Place in London (John Stott’s former parish). Life Explored is only a few years old and is excellently produced. It is meant to especially engage non-Christians in a secular society to think about the little gods they are worshipping: money, relationships, family, career, etc.

The structure is similar to Alpha. We met for seven weeks and it centered around tables of 6-8 people. First is eating a meal together which was prepared by one of our families. Then engagement with the material. For Life Explored, that starts with a 10 minute video story. There is a words only story meant to stimulate thoughts and emotions. Then the evening’s question, such as, “What are you looking for in life to bring you happiness?” Then another video. This one is a teaching video by Rico Tice or someone else. Then a Scripture is read and questions engaging that Scripture were asked at each Table.

For St. George’s, we went from 12-15 people worshipping on Sunday nights to 30-35 people coming every week for Life Explored. They were at all different places in places in terms of faith in God. For our core community it was also a blessing as we each were challenged to look inward and think about the little gods we continue to give ourselves over to as believers. Am I trusting in God’s greatest gift to me: Himself? Or am I looking to other things in life to find happiness and fulfillment?

This was the first time we ran the course and we learned a lot. We look forward to doing it again in the future. We planning on running the main Christianity Explored Course in the Fall. It is a more classic exploration of the Gospel of Mark, looking at the life of Jesus.