NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE (ANS) -- Pioneering English evangelist Reverend Dennis Pethers, while short in stature and softly spoken, has a huge vision to mobilize Christians to share their faith across the globe, through the More To Life DVD resource pack, which has already sold 100,000 copies in the UK alone.

More To Life International Director Dennis Pethers

As International Director of More to Life, Dennis speaks at Church Leaders Conferences, and a variety of other events all around the world. He works in close partnership with LifeWay Christian Resources in the US and with numerous networks of leaders in many parts of the world.

Pethers, grew up in the East End of London and for the early part of his life knew nothing of church, Jesus or the Christian faith. He discovered the amazing truth about Jesus whilst reading ‘Mere Christianity’, by C S Lewis, sitting on a train outside of Liverpool Street Station.

Speaking to me at the National Religious Broadcaster convention in Nashville, Tennessee he recalled the remarkable story of how the More To Life project came about: “We produced More To Life a number of years ago and it was incredibly successful. It's all based around people's stories. I've got a friend in Orlando who says when people stop reading the Bible all they have left to read is our lives.

“So what arouses their curiosity is when they see a believer and they see that belief in their life is something making a difference. That's when they become interested. More To Life is all built around the phrase ‘changed lives authenticate the message of Jesus’.

“A couple of years ago something amazing happened when I was preaching at different conferences around the world. A number of Americans approached me at different times in different ways and said ‘what you've experienced and are experiencing in the UK is such an important lesson for us to think about in the US’. So they asked if I would pilot More To Life in a number of states in America which we began to do.”

Pethers says following this he was approached by a very successful Southern Baptist publishing house called Lifeway, who are now publishing More To Life in the United State and for use around the world.

He says there are three different kinds of components to the More To Life resource pack: “One is a training kit called Engaging Through Story, which helps believers to get the confidence and passion to actually share their faith using their faith story. Then there's a dvd full of people's faith stories, which they can give away to start that first connection. Believers find it much easier to give away a dvd and say watch this then they do say to someone I want to talk to you about Jesus.

“The third part is called Discover More To Life. If a believer's been encouraged by the training to go and reach someone they can invite them to discover More To Life which again is a whole new resource that involves four different get togethers. During these sessions they look at the difference Jesus makes in the lives of some of the people He met in the gospel of John and then encourage them saying ‘well could he make that kind of difference in your life as well?’

Pethers, who also founded Viz-A-Viz Ministries, an organisation committed to ‘Relevant communication of the Gospel to people today’, says he spends around 20 weeks of the year travelling throughout America and around the world seeking to resource people through More To Life. I asked him what were the highlights and pitfalls of this challenging life on the road: “The highlights are that God just seems to be going before me and opening up so many doors of opportunity. It’s also seeing people begin to use it and see the lights come on. That's the encouraging thing.

“The challenge I guess because I'm a pioneer by nature is I'm still always looking at the not yet. There's the great encouragement of what God is doing but I could see God doing so much more. I suppose God makes some people like that. Pioneering people always looking for the next thing God will do. The other challenge is for my wife and I in terms of asking ourselves what does this mean. I'm out of the UK twenty plus weeks this year and probably more next year, so what does that means for us as a family with our kids now grown up.”

While Pethers has already achieved so much in his life, his long-term vision for his ministry continues: “I started Viz A Viz ministries seventeen years ago and it feels like now we're doing what I thought we were doing when I set it up. The big picture vision is that God will use me to play the part I believe He has for me to help the church to see that it needs to be doing new things in a new day.

“My dream as I look forward is that I could play whatever part God's got whether it's hugely significant or just a little bit significant to bring in a new generation of Christian thinking that says this is what we need to be doing now to reach these lost people.

“I guess I can go to bed and sleep well at night thinking God's used me as a normal fallen guy to help hopefully tens of thousands of lost people come to know Jesus and bring a smile to the face of God.”

I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.

For more information on More To Life and Viz A Viz ministries go to:
www.vizaviz.org 

Peter Wooding is an award-winning TV, radio and print journalist and media consultant having spent 10 years as news editor with UCB Radio in the UK. He has traveled extensively reporting from countries including Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Dubai, South Korea, Zambia, Gambia, Mozambique, Croatia, Israel and India. He reports regularly for CBN News, KCBI radio, ASSIST News and Sorted Magazine. Peter and wife Sharon live in North Wales, UK with their three children. Passionate to see God’s Justice and Mercy impact lives, Peter is director of a new UK ministry Mercy Project International (www.mercyproject.org.uk) to help at-risk young people in Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Kosovo, the Middle East and beyond. Contact Peter for consultation at woodingpeter@hotmail.com or tel. +44 1244 549167/+44 7500 903067.