Simply Christanity

Coming into 2025 Frank Nicol asked a few people if they would like to investigate Christianity more closely. The answer was an overwhelming yes, and eight people joined Frank for a course called Simply Christianity, a course that he did 25 years before. Frank tells us more:

My start with Simply Christianity was back in the year 2000 when I was at university. I wasn’t a Christian and I didn’t really want anything to do with Christianity. One day I came into a chemistry lecture late and took the last seat next to Jo (whom I didn’t know at the time). Jo challenged me and got me going to the Christian group on campus. Because you’re in a Christian group people just  assume you are a Christian. So, they wanted help to run Simply Christianity in the student village on campus where I lived. I just thought they wanted money. I had a chunk of cash in my back pocket, so I was like ‘yeah, I can support’. They said ‘no’, we mean get involved practically – going out to buy ice cream to woo students to come to the course. I ended up doing the course and by the end of it I was convicted that Jesus rose from the dead. And that was the start of my Christian journey. I was converted at age 17.

Running the course at Karratha Anglican flowed out of a change in our church last year. We had 20 key church members leave. They were all replaced, but with people who were not mature Christians. And that’s when I seized the opportunity to run Simply Christianity.

Simply Christianity is simple – it’s a nice short five-week course, where there is an expectation that you read a chunk of the Gospel of Luke each week. And when you get back together, the course points out some simple things to notice about who Jesus is as King and rescuer, what the cross has to do with everything, and how to understand the resurrection.

It’s written by John Dickson and effectively there’s only five points:
• Christianity is about responding appropriately to Jesus.
• As the Christ, Jesus possessed the authority of God.
• Jesus came on a rescue mission to save people who had distanced themselves from God.
• The cross is where the rescue mission is achieved.
• The resurrection declares Jesus to be Lord and Saviour.

We ran the course over Term 1. There are no flashy videos, even though I’m not against flashy videos as such, but if you want to get to know Jesus you have to read the Bible, there’s no way around that.

Each week those participating read some of Luke at home, listened to a little bit of content from me, and then asked me whatever they wanted.

The great thing about Simply Christianity is that it really engages you with the Gospel of Luke and when people missed sessions, they were keen to catch up. So while most of the sessions were done as a group, I caught up with everybody individually and that meant I got a range of different questions.

And the highlights of the course? One of the girls who has a Japanese background wants to get baptised. One of the men whom we’ve known for five years and had come along to church previously, said at the end of the course, “I’m on board, Jesus is my Lord and Saviour”.  A number of people have said that they are interested in studying Acts as a follow-up. I need a book just like Simply Christianity, I might contact John Dickson.