Love Inc of the Black Hills in Rapid City, SD, has been using Christianity Explored for more than two years.  Love INC (Love In the Name of Christ) mobilizes local churches to transform lives and communities in the Name of Christ.  They seek to walk alongside people on their journey to wholeness through mutual service, education, friendship, and prayer.

Program Director Roy Roberts says, “We use Christianity Explored as our primary introductory material, then encourage people to also go through the Discipleship Explored course.”  One thing they especially like about our material is, “Teachers have found that the courses lead to lots of discussion.  They use the course videos, which open up a lot of avenues for group discussion.”  They have seen people become followers of Christ as a result.

Having learned about how Love INC was using Christianity Explored through a newspaper article I saw online, I spoke with Roy Roberts to find out more about Love INC’s experience with our courses. Roy has been with Love INC of the Black Hills for two years. They were already using our material when he got there.

“Christianity Explored has been a really good course for us. We have used it on three campuses, and now will be using it on a fourth. Most of the individuals coming to our campuses are either homeless or experiencing poverty.”

“We use both Christianity Explored and Discipleship Explored. We have found Christianity Explored to be a great foundational course. Most of the people coming are non-churched.”

“Most of the people teaching the courses are pastors. They have found that Christianity Explored and Discipleship Explored give them a great connection with the people coming, and they have seen many of the people start coming to their churches.”

“With one group, going through Christianity Explored then Discipleship Explored led to an ongoing Bible Study. They started with Christianity Explored, then went to Discipleship Explored, but they wanted more, so now they are continuing with other studies.”

“Some of the people coming are not able to read or write. We have to connect them with tutors as they do the course. This can help reach two people, because not all of the tutors are Christians. The tutors learn from the course just like the students. We also connect the students with people who can teach them to read and write.”

It was interesting that Roy made the point about using the course with people who cannot read or write, because a week before this interview, another ministry had asked me if our courses work with people who cannot read. Christianity Explored is adaptable and is being used with many different kinds of people.