"Having grown up in the church, I knew about Christianity – I’d heard the Bible stories, listened to sermons, read the physical words on the pages, and tried to follow Jesus’ example, the A2A Pastoral Development Program filled in the gaps. It taught me how to read the Bible, to understand the context, genres, and storylines, suddenly I was reading a book that made sense, and could see the connections between all the different parts. It gave me space to explore the whys behind the church as a whole, bigger than just the building or denomination I was part of. It taught me how to have conversations about my convictions, and be able to verbalise the why.   Even if you don’t want to do this course for yourself, do it for others – after all, we’re called to be a light on the hill, salt on the earth, and to go out and make disciples of the world."