Discipleship Explored: A pre-emptive strike

Barry Cooper explains who Discipleship Explored is for: “It’s intended for Christians, whether they’ve just started the Christian life, or have been on the road for a number of years.” And how has the series been received? “We’ve been thrilled to see the way God’s been using it. It was nominated for media product of the year at the CBC awards, which made our friends in the marketing department very happy! But for me, the real joy comes from the personal emails with stories of how lives have been changed. I remember hearing from Tim Chester in Sheffield and he said: ‘We should watch that ten-minute episode [“Righteous in Christ”] at least once a year because it encapsulates the truth of justification so well and applies it so powerfully.’ Our aim with Discipleship Explored is to get out of the way and just let God’s Word speak for itself, so it was lovely to hear that.”

The irony for Barry was that the opportunity to present an eight-part DVD series on the so-called “New Testament letter of joy” came at a time when he was struggling with profound grief. “There were some personal issues at that point in my life which left me feeling isolated and extremely lonely, and so to be in front of camera every day was a huge challenge for me. At the same time, I was immensely grateful for the things that God was teaching me as I wrote the series. I needed those lessons about contentment. Still do! And I think the fact that I was suffering probably helped me to get under the skin of Philippians a bit better than I would have done otherwise.”

And for Barry, there couldn’t be a better time to rediscover the truths taught in Discipleship Explored: “D. A. Carson says at the start of How Long, O Lord that it’s not much use trying to sort out our theology of suffering when we’re right in the middle of it. You can’t put up storm defences as the waves are crashing against you. So for me, Philippians is a pre-emptive strike. It’s a defence against the storm that is coming.”