Mathetis Update

Mathetis Update 

By William Bush | WBS Chief Operations Officer

How do you reach out to someone who has fallen away? What a challenging question. Even more challenging: How do you craft a tool Christians can use to reach those who have fallen away? These are the very questions many of you have asked World Bible School. Many donors, including many young people, have given to WBS to help us research and craft a Mathetis course to reach out to our former brothers and sisters who have wandered from the faith.

In our initial research, we examined several examples of faithful servants whom God used to restore His people back to Him. Many of these servants, we commonly refer to as prophets. God used the prophet Nathan to confront King David after he committed adultery and murder by telling the story about a poor man and his lamb (2 Samuel 12). God used Hosea to vividly illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness by calling him to marry a prostitute. God used the story of Jonah and the big fish to teach Israel the depths of His compassion and forgiveness, even when they initially choose to run away from Him. God sent strange dreams and visions to prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah to wake up Israel and call them to return to Him. Even the greatest prophet, Jesus, used parables to call Israel to repent in preparation for the kingdom of heaven.

God has used stories throughout time to teach deep spiritual truths not only to His people, but also to those whom He was seeking to call back into a right relationship with Him. The entire Bible is filled with stories, designed to help teach us how to live. As we read these stories, we see not only how the characters respond, but also how God chooses to work in their lives. Stories have a unique way of provoking intrigue and curiosity. And often times, they can be an effective tool to teach deep spiritual truths into the hearts of people calloused by sin.

We are seeking to take a similar approach in our upcoming Mathetis Original course. Rather than using narrative videos like we have done in past series, we have chosen to create a cinematic mini video series. Through story, we are seeking to illustrate how God calls for us to live out our faith, and the way He works in our lives along the way. In addition to the cinematic videos, each lesson will include “Digging Deeper” articles and discussion questions to further explore the lesson’s topics.

Our cinematic video series depicts the journey of a young man named Jason who is wrestling with anger toward God and the church, and the guilt from his past. Scan the QR code to watch the trailer.

We have titled the new Mathetis

Original course, “Questioning Jesus”.
Check out the lesson topics below:

• If God Loves Me, Why Am I Suffering?
• Does Jesus Really Want a Relationship with Me?
• Why Doesn’t God Want Me to Be Happy?
• Why Is the Church Full of Hypocrites?
• Why Should I Love the Church?
• Do All Christians Have to Agree?
• Is God Really First In My Life?
• Is My Faith at Work?
• Do I Love People Different From Me?

Do I Love my Enemies Like Jesus Does? At the end of the year, we wrapped up video production. We are now in the process of editing the videos, writing the discussion questions and “Digging Deeper” articles and laying out the “Reaching Series” Bible class curriculum. The “Reaching Series” curriculum will be a guide to help Christians reach out to those who have fallen away. We are targeting the full launch by this Summer. Please be praying for us as we complete this project.