Review by Stuart Bonnington

Introducing God has taken the structure of the Alpha Course and the content of Two Ways to Live and come up with an evangelistic blockbuster. From the Introductory Session all the way to the weekend away - around the theme 'The difference Jesus makes' - via the multi-media presentations, this is a finely crafted and carefully shaped course.

It patiently begins where a modern non-Christian is, gently teaches them the truth of the Bible about Jesus while allowing them to express their doubts, questions and objections, all time while they are building significant relationships with Christians.

This course is very well produced (not surprising given Dominic Steele's background in the media at 2UE a Sydney radio station and as the head of the Christians in the Media

Everything that is necessary for you to run the Introducing God course in your church is included in the DVD's but if so desired you could have 'live' presentations.

Dominic and his associates have read the post-modern culture well and illustrate the points being made with freshness and power. I never thought the Hutt River Province (the what you might say?) and 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' would be brought into such effective service for the gospel for example!

While the form of presentation of Introducing God featured on the DVD is of what seems to be a fairly large scale event being held in a church hall, I have a friend who has run Introducing God very successfully in his lounge room following a simple meal. In many of our Presbyterian congregations which are small by definition, this maybe the best way to go, using the DVD resources and focussing on making the food and friendship factor the best they can be. The other advantage of this context for Introducing God is it allows non-christians to relax more and they will be probably also be even more willing to object with a 'talking head' (apologies Dominic) on your TV screen, which is the best starting point for the skilled group leader to gently guide the discussion in the 'right' direction.

I suspect that Introducing God is going to become something of a phenomenon in the Australian Church.. Its freshness, friendliness and Christ-focused nature will commend it to Bible-based churches of all stripes around Australia. ministry) and those who are coming in contact with IG are obviously benefiting from the experience of early proto-types.