More To Life

Written by Sam House

Imagine a future time when most people in North America do not go to church; when many people have never even been in a church building; when more people than ever do not believe in God. Dennis Pethers is an evangelist in the United Kingdom. He says that pessimistic future view of Christian faith is Western Europe’s current reality.

“The UK is, unfortunately, farther down the road than many other western countries in terms of ‘post Christianity’,” Dennis says.  “Ministering within this context has provided me with valuable insights that can help other nations to avoid what seems inevitable decline.”

Many churches and leaders in the United States are aware that something needs to happen but aren’t quite sure what it is. What Dennis has learned in the UK can, be of real value in the US.

Dennis has developed a strategy of four stories that communicate a powerful witness  to people who don’t know the language of Christianity. He calls it “More to Life.”

The More to Life approach “de-codes” Christianity by helping people relate to Scripture through the remarkable, true stories found in the Bible. This approach describes salvation as the ultimate way to add “more to life.” It communicates what salvation is like through the stories of people who were “far from God,” as Dennis and his ministry define being spiritually lost. The people who were far from God explain what happened when they heard “God’s story,” the gospel of Jesus Christ. A collection of these stories form the More to Life DVD.

To resource this approach, Dennis first authored the More to Life DVD. in England, where it is being used successfully as a video tract. Over the past few years, Dennis also has been working as a consultant with the Baptist General Association of Virginia, and in partnership with conventions in Pennsylvania, Alabama, New York, and the Greater Orlando Association in Florida.,

To help the churches he works with in the US, Dennis also developed an American edition of the More to Life DVD. LifeWay began manufacturing and distributing this DVD late last fall. As churches began asking for training and follow up materials to make the most effective use of the DVD, the More to Life Training and the More to Life Discovery workbooks were created.

The More to Life Training workbook shows believers how to step out into their community to find, or to be found by, people who are far from God. Believers learn to give these away as a twenty-first century way of bringing people into contact with the gospel. Believers are also helped to re-connect God’s love for people who are far from Him and His trust in us to commission us to join Him to reach them.

This training quickly reveals the clues people include as they tell you their stories. It also helps believers learn to quickly tell their own stories of being far from God, hearing His message, and how they found more to life. Most importantly, the training experience helps believers learn how to effectively and confidently present the gospel, God’story.

Even after hearing God’s story, people will sooner or later have questions. The More to Life Discovery small groups provide a rich, simple, community-building, way to help people explore the truths of the Bible and learn a new story: their own story of accepting Jesus Christ as Savior.

To further help believers understand the training and facilitate discovery, there are also DVDs that support the More to Life Training and More to Life Discovery workbooks. On each session of the video, author Dennis Pethers clearly communicates great teaching with enthusiasm, warmth and compassion—and all with a British accent. His obvious love of ministering to people grows from his own story of discovering God’s love.

“I am an evangelist who came to Christ never having been inside a church.  Coming to know Christ radically changed my life and since that time, some 25 years ago, I have dedicated my life to making Jesus known to people who do not attend church.”

Dennis experienced a call to evangelism and left a promising future in the business world to live out God’s promise in new ways. “Following a time in local Baptist church pastoral ministry, some 15 years ago, I founded Viz-A-Viz Ministries, a dynamic, rapidly growing evangelistic organization, now consisting of 50 people who are evangelists, film makers and designers, a band, a theatre company and local based youth and children’s workers. Viz-A-Viz Ministries now reaches out to adults, young people, and children across the UK and beyond.”

As you and the believers around you find and cross the bridges to people who are far from God, More to Life will help you see how else God wants to grow and guide the gifts and talents He has placed in your congregation to serve Him. This eye-opening ministry can open your eyes  wide to the miracles God works in lives all around us. I believe you will see lives change, families change, your congregation and community change. I believe that the more you listen to others’ stories and tell them your story and God’s story, the more you will experience more to life.