Creationtide

The Season of Creation – or Creationtide – forms about 5 weeks where we shape our worship around giving thanks for all aspects of God's creation, and paying attention to the natural world with the aim of confessing our sin towards it, repenting or changing our behaviour, and actively working towards seeing healing and wholeness come about across the whole created order.

Spiritual Disciplines

This series is based on the classic book "A Celebration of Discipline" by Richard Foster. Over the next few weeks, we'll be looking at each of the 12 spiritual disciplines outlined in the book with the aim of investing in our inner lives.

The Book of Ruth

As we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel from lockdown, we turn to look at the book of Ruth, a story of faith in hard times.

May we fix our eyes on Jesus who is at work in, and through, the hard times we face.

The “I AM” Sayings of Jesus

As we begin 2021 and live through lockdown 3, we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus - our true source of hope for the future. But who is Jesus - who does he say he is? It matters, because who he is impacts who we are in him.

Over the next six weeks we will be looking at John's gospel and Jesus' "I am" sayings. Jesus reveals to us through accessible images who the great 'I AM' is (that's God's Old Testament name). Indeed John wants us to see here is God in our midst. What does it all mean for our lives?

The Book of Micah

We are beginning a new series today in the Old Testament book of Micah. The prophet Micah spoke God's word faithfully to the people of Judah over a period which saw the reign of four different kings. The book is therefore composed of different sermons as he speaks into different settings and to the different responses of the people to God. Yet his overarching message to them and to us is the same: we please God by loving mercy, acting justly and walking humbly with him (6:8). Our God is a God of mercy, yet he hates injustice and the oppression of the weak and powerless and we are to be like him. We will look at each of his messages in turn.

The Book of 1 Peter

Our summer series focused on some of the heroes and heroines of the book of Acts. One of them, the disciple Peter wrote this letter around 62 AD to the young churches across the region of what is modern Turkey today. It was not easy being a Christian. Emperor Nero's persecution of the church had begun. How were people to live as followers of Jesus? Those who Peter was writing to felt isolated and on the edge of society. Peter wants them to have confidence to live knowing who they are in Jesus. They are part of God's family because of Jesus and he wants them to live in such a way that their lives speak of the gospel itself. Peter's words are for us too; as Jesus lived, so we live, as living examples of the gospel.

The Book of Acts

Our new series, in the book of Acts, called Action Heroes will be looking at those who sought to witness and live boldly for Jesus in the power of the Spirit.

Acts is inspiring because its characters are ordinary like me and you. Yet, filled with the Spirit, they do incredible things - although certainly not without hardship or risk to their own lives.

The Book of Daniel

As Christians we live in exile, like Daniel and his friends did, as “aliens and strangers in the world” (1 Peter 2: 11). Our faith as Christians living in the world comes under pressure in many different ways. The antidote is trust and dependence on our all powerful God and not on self. God is in control, even when it doesn't seem like it.

The Jewish people had been conquered by the Babylonians yet God was still sovereign and even the rulers of the Babylonian empire had to acknowledge this truth. While so much is different in our context today compared to Daniel’s, the truth remains that God is sovereign across our world and the world’s leaders are subject to his ultimate authority.

While there is much to be learnt from Daniel as a man, there is much that separates us from him - we live in a very different culture and time and we live in the light of Christ’s redemption. We need therefore to tread carefully in application. Daniel’s actions are not necessarily normative for us today.