Life Explored Handbook

Life Explored is an exciting new way to share the gospel in today's highly visual culture. Developed by Christianity Explored Ministries, the seven interactive sessions are based on stunning videos shot all over the globe.

Life Explored will help people uncover what they’re really living for, and shows that the greatest pleasure in life is not enjoying the gifts God has given, but enjoying God himself. This exciting, new outreach course can be run before or after Christianity Explored or Alpha and is perfect for anyone looking for answers to life's big questions.

This Handbook contains everything a participant needs for the course, guiding them through the sessions with plenty of space for notes.

Bookstore Interview with Nathan Morgan Locke

Could you give us a quick idea of what Life Explored is?
Nathan: I like to say that Life Explored is an exegetically responsible and aesthetically sensitive evangelistic approach. Which is basically a pretentious way of saying it’s good news about Jesus, presented to people who wouldn’t call themselves Christians, in a way which won’t embarrass them and handles the Bible properly. If people are familiar with the Christianity Explored (CE) series, it shares a lot in common with that. It’s really just a tool for Churches, Christian groups and individuals to use to share the gospel with their communities, neighborhoods, friends and families. It’s slightly different in approach from CE because it uses a short narrative films to help people uncover what they’re really living for, and then we go on to show that the greatest pleasure in life is enjoying God himself.

What was your role in creating Life Explored?
Nathan: I served the project as a co-creator with Barry Cooper. We worked together on the Biblical teaching elements and both helped to write and produce the short narrative films. It was a big project and a long time in development, so a huge number of people were involved in different ways. It wasn’t exactly two men and an iPhone. We had a lot of help.

How did your background in evangelism and youth ministry affect your work on Life Explored?
Nathan: I’ve spent the last 12 years or so trying to capture the imaginations of young people with the gospel, and that set me up really well to help create Life Explored. There’s something immediate about preaching evangelistically to children and teenagers. It requires that you not just say interesting things, but say them in interesting ways. I think that writing a VBS for your church every year for a decade forces you think about creative ways to declare the gospel.

How did you come up with the ideas for each story?
Nathan: There certainly wasn’t a straightforward creative process! I don’t think creativity works like that. Well, certainly not ours. God’s creative process was basically saying “let there be.. and there was.” We don’t have that power. We’re much less in control of things. That’s not to say that we didn’t have guidelines, we wanted the key cornel of what we were teaching from scripture to control what we produced (and we worked hard to try to do that), but once you’re writing stories all sorts of other things outside your control come into play. And then when you try to film them you realize how much easier it would have been just to write them! I suppose the most straightforward of the stories in terms of initial idea to final edit were the Geisha film and the Lawn film (but even they have their own ‘making of’ stories).

What led you to focus the sessions around the question, “What’s the best gift God could give you?”
Nathan: We just felt that as a question it summed up what we’re driving at through the material. It’s a gentle question, I think, but it forces people to wrestle with what’s most important in their lives. The fact that we can say that the absolute best thing God has to give is himself, is great because it’s what he has done for us in Christ.

What’s your prayer for Life Explored?
Nathan: I suppose essentially that it awakens people to know the glory of God in the gospel of his Son. I’d personally love it to open up some more creative ways to reach people with the truth of scripture too.

Barry Cooper was born in Epsom, Surrey, and studied English Language and Literature at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. After graduating, he trained at the Webber Douglas Academy in London and began a six year acting career that included work at Shakespeare's Globe and the National Theater. More recently, he completed his Masters degree in theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, and an internship with Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. He was one of the core team who planted Trinity West Church in Shepherd’s Bush, UK, where he’s now a member.

Nate Morgan Locke is Associate Evangelist at Christianity Explored Ministries and serves on the staff team at St Bart's Church, Bath, UK.