The fact that you’re reading this email suggests to me you share our conviction that making and growing disciples of the Lord Jesus is the big thing.

But let me share with you a related conviction that’s grown in importance to me over the last few years. It can be summed up in a short sentence (one I shared in an article back in February):

Disciple-making flourishes in the fertile soil of deep gospel clarity.

It’s the gospel of Jesus that saves and makes disciples (Rom 1:16), so this gospel is what we ought to proclaim to the world (2 Cor 4:5). It’s the gospel that compels disciples to seek to persuade others to become disciples (2 Cor 5:14), and it’s the gospel that trains disciples to renounce ungodliness (Titus 2:12). And the more profoundly and clearly a believer sees how much they’ve been forgiven through the grace expressed in the gospel, the more they will love and sacrificially follow Jesus (Luke 7:41-43).

The gospel is, in other words, the thing that drives effective disciple-making ministry under God’s sovereign hand. The gospel is therefore something you really want to be deeply understood in your church.

As your partner in making disciples, Matthias Media wants to help you achieve this. We have a range of resources that you can use to enhance the gospel clarity of all sorts of different people in all sorts of contexts.

Perhaps you won’t be at all surprised to hear that I’m talking about the resources built on the Two Ways to Live gospel outline. What you might be surprised about, however, is how extensive this range has become over the years.

Please take a moment to consider how you might be able to use each of the following resources to nourish the disciple-making soil in your ministry.

Two Ways to Live

Our most well-known resource, this booklet is widely regarded as one of the best explanations there is of the gospel to give away to an unbeliever. But it’s also a useful gospel summary for a Christian to familiarize themselves with. It’s recently been given a design update, along with some minor improvements to the text. It’s also available as a free online resource in a number of languages.

The Christian Gospel  NEW

This short book combines Tony Payne’s sparkling writing with his deep thinking about the gospel. It's longer and more nuanced than the tract, but still a simple and persuasive explanation of the core message of the gospel. And, like the booklet, it’s both a very useful tool for evangelism and a great model for Christians a great model of how to conceptualize and explain the gospel.  

The Essential Jesus

In this short book, the Gospel of Luke is introduced and later summarized by a brief version of Two Ways to Live. Rather than setting out the details of the gospel as a series of propositions, the reader is introduced to the details via the compelling story of Jesus. This makes it a wonderful gospel presentation for any unbeliever, but it also helps Christians connect the story with the theology.

Learn the Gospel

Written and presented by Tony Payne, Learn the Gospel is an eight-session, video-based resource for equipping Christians with a thorough understanding of the gospel—its parts, how they fit together and the implications for our lives. (This is the first part of a completely redesigned version of the previous Two Ways to Live training course; the second part is coming soon, Share the Gospel.)

Who Will Be King?

Lots of people, including kids, will be helped by this more straightforward explanation of the gospel. But it’s still the same gospel! So while this booklet uses simpler vocabulary and more concrete concepts to  communicate the message, it still follows the Two Ways to Live structure and theology. It’s not just a useful evangelistic giveaway, it’s a helpful tool for solidifying the gospel with church kids.

Who Will Be King? Activity book

This fun-filled activity book gets kids engaging and interacting with the Who will be king? gospel presentation described above. With puzzles, quizzes, colouring pages and other cool stuff, it’s a great way to build and develop gospel-clarity in kids from around 5 to 12 years old.

Two Ways to Live: a Bible study explaining Christianity

Sometimes we only have the opportunity to hand something over to read, but every now and then we get the chance to sit down to read with someone. This short Bible study based on Two Ways to Live is designed to do with another person in around an hour. It gets them opening the Bible and reading it for themselves, encouraging them to grow in their gospel clarity and appreciation.   

You, Me and the Bible

This resource is also a Bible study, but rather than working through Two Ways to Live in one session, this resource goes deeper and explains the Bible’s gospel message in six sessions. It includes a QR code at the end of each study that links to a video of Tony Payne consolidating what’s been learned. It’s useful for clarifying the gospel with both Christians and non-Christians.

I hope that’s been a helpful prompt and reminder of some of Matthias Media’s best tools for achieving gospel clarity. If you have any questions about any of these resources and how you can make good use of them, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.