| Raising issues - finding answers |
 ‘Is there more to life?’ ask Peter Meadows and Joseph Steinberg. ‘Please suspend your honest disbelief for a while and let’s go find out.’ This is how your journey of discovery could begin. Peter and Joseph, authors of The Y Course and The Book of Y, are here to help you navigate your route by raising issues and giving you space to consider your response. The destination may change your life forever. But how did it all begin? ‘We met because Joseph came to me with an idea that helped to explain the nugget of the Christian faith,’ says Peter. ‘We immediately clicked and enjoyed finding ways of making important issues of faith real, relevant and reachable to ordinary people. I think that’s because we’re both from non-church backgrounds. Joseph was born into a Jewish family. In his teens he came to believe Jesus as the Messiah. I was from a very non-church family.’ Together Peter and Joseph have devised a course for those who have no background in church or the Bible – one that isn’t ‘as miserable as sucking lemons!’ It looks at real questions people ask – like the question of suffering, if there are so many religions how can one claim to be right and what does happen after death? ‘The stories that Jesus told and the illustrations that he gave were right out of the experience of people who heard him… We have used contemporary examples to keep this current and that’s essentially what we did. ‘People are much less willing to be talked “at” so we have recorded a “chat show” on DVD as part of the course in the style of GM TV. We’re interviewed, much like authors discussing stories from their books.’ What ‘result’ do they hope for? ‘Our aim is that anyone will have had the opportunity to think through life’s big issues and to reach conclusions that they are comfortable with. ‘We have hopes that they’ll make the same discovery that we’ve made. But you can’t force anyone to believe. For some people it’s quite a journey. ‘But we hope that some would discover the reason Jesus came, how they could know him personally and the difference it can make to their lives. But some people start a long way back and have got a lot to come to understand. ‘We have discovered between us, the difference that a living faith in Jesus makes. And we hope that this will take people to that or a lot closer.’ Next month NEW SERIES: The Y Column looks at the question ‘Does God really exist?’ If you have a Y Question relating to issues of faith and Christianity, Peter or Joseph will do their best to answer it. Send your question to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Subject: Y Question. We hope to publish their responses in future editions. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
