Here are the previous sermon series that we have run at Christ Church. You can follow the links to see details of the sermons from each series.
When a service starts moving in a more 'charismatic' direction, one of the potential dangers is that 'worship' can quickly become a way of masking our hurts rather than letting God in on them. In this series, therefore, we will deal with a number of issues that will have caused many of us hurt and confusion and seek to bring some of God's love and healing to these areas. Prayer ministry will be available after all of these services.
Of all the unusual things about Jesus, possibly the one thing that stands out most is actually the people he was prepared to mix with - people that no one else would have any time for. Luke's Gospel in particular is full of stories where Jesus does just that, and this series looks at a number of them where Jesus meets with different groups of despised and marginalised people - who then see their lives transformed by His love for them.
After completing our series on the Book of Judges and celebrating Pentecost, we will be looking at the collection of parables grouped together in chapter 4 of Mark's gospel. Despite the Kingdom of God being the major theme of Jesus' teaching, it rarely receives the same profile today and in this series we will look at these parables and what they reveal about what should be looking for if we are to discern and participate in the growth of God's Kingdom today.
Recognising that another danger is 'worship' becoming too introspective, this short series will largely use Micah 6:8 to reflect on the outward direction that God requires of our faith and the areas of particular ministry or service that he is calling us to in response to this.
Young people often raise the most searching questions about how the Christian faith relates to the daily realities of life and those at Christ Church are no exception. At the 6.30 service during July, therefore, we will look at a number of very practical questions that our young people have raised and seek to find part of God's answer to them.
The Bible contains several books that are extremely small and whose message, therefore, is easy to neglect. Taking four of smallest books of prophecy from the Old Testament followed by four of the briefest epistles from the New Testament, this series will seek to address this issue by examining each of these 'pocket sized gems' and their relevance to our Christian discipleship.
Having recently laid their emphasis upon God's grace, the talks at 9.30 will now turn to looking at the response of faith that God calls us to make to this grace. The letter to the Hebrews gives us a long list of Old Testament characters who lived by faith and during this series we will look at each of these people and see what they can teach us about our Christian calling to live by faith in a 21st century context.
Over the last few years, we have used the month of August to have different members of Christ Church talk about ‘Why I am a Christian’. These have turned out to be some of the most popular and helpful talks that we have had during the year, with plenty of downloads recorded on the Christ Church website. Each year different members of our congregation tell us some of the story of their lives and the key factors that have led them to become and continue as Christians.
One of the reassuring things about the Bible is the way in which it so often shows God taking very ordinary people and using them to do extraordinary things. During this series we will look at four such characters in Esther, Timothy, Barnabas and Ruth and think about the ways that God might be seeking to make similar use of us today.
Having recorded the explosive growth of the early Christian church in its first twenty chapters, the last eight chapters of Acts largely focus upon the trials faced by St Paul after his arrest in Jerusalem. Rarely preached upon, the detail contained in these chapters indicates the importance of this material and in this series we will therefore be looking to grasp the central themes within these accounts and their implications, both for our discipleship and the spread of the gospel today.
Throughout July and August at the 9.30 service we used the examples given in Hebrews 11 to think about what it means to live by faith. The aim of this series is to build on this by thinking about the challenges that doing this will bring to our everyday lives. Taking a number of different areas of life, the talks will suggest distinctive ways in which we might approach them if we are seeking to live by faith.
The Christian claim is that God can speak to us through the Bible but what about other media? Taking four areas that often resonate with people - the News, Poetry, Art and Film - this series will consider the ways in which the God of the Bible might be seeking to speak to us through them.
This series addresses some of the tricky questions surrounding prayer and includes some personal testimony on the difference that prayer has made.
Paul's letters are full of prayer both for those he writes to and others and in this series we will examine these prayers and see what they can teach us about how we can pray more effectively.
This series provides teaching on the basics of prayer and includes stories on the difference that prayer has made.
As we go through Advent the sermons at our services will focus on preparing for Christmas. The 9.30 service will particularly look for the surprises in the familiar Christmas stories.
As we go through Advent the sermons at our services will focus on preparing for Christmas. Whilst the 11.00 service looks at the way in which chapter 1 of Luke's gospel builds up to Jesus' birth and the 9.30 service looks for the surprises in the familiar Christmas stories, the 6.30 service will have a different approach: reflecting upon the biblical basis behind the traditional Advent candles of hope, peace, love and joy.
As we go through Advent the sermons at our services will focus on preparing for Christmas. The 11.00 service will look at the way in which chapter 1 of Luke's gospel builds up to Jesus' birth.
