Past Preaching Programme

One of the most consistent themes within the New Testament is the calling of Jesus’ followers to suffer. The roots of this are found in the figure of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah, which finds its fulfilment not only in the calling of Jesus but the calling of the church as well. Whilst the suffering and death of Jesus is unique in achieving the defeat of evil, the New Testament is also clear that the way that the victory of Jesus goes on being implemented is through the faithful suffering of his followers.

At 11.00 and six30 we will look at five of the main books within the New Testament which unpack this theme of the suffering of God’s people: Mark’s Gospel, The Acts of the Apostles, 2 Corinthians, 1 Peter and Revelation. Exploring this theme from a number of different angles will hopefully help us in the difficult task of bringing our suffering before God so that his glory can be revealed through it.

One of the most consistent themes within the New Testament is the calling of Jesus’ followers to suffer. The roots of this are found in the figure of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah, which finds its fulfilment not only in the calling of Jesus but the calling of the church as well. Whilst the suffering and death of Jesus is unique in achieving the defeat of evil, the New Testament is also clear that the way that the victory of Jesus goes on being implemented is through the faithful suffering of his followers.

At 11.00 and six30 we will look at five of the main books within the New Testament which unpack this theme of the suffering of God’s people: Mark’s Gospel, The Acts of the Apostles, 2 Corinthians, 1 Peter and Revelation. Exploring this theme from a number of different angles will hopefully help us in the difficult task of bringing our suffering before God so that his glory can be revealed through it.

One of the most consistent themes within the New Testament is the calling of Jesus’ followers to suffer. The roots of this are found in the figure of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah, which finds its fulfilment not only in the calling of Jesus but the calling of the church as well. Whilst the suffering and death of Jesus is unique in achieving the defeat of evil, the New Testament is also clear that the way that the victory of Jesus goes on being implemented is through the faithful suffering of his followers.

At the 9.30 service during January we will explore this theme by looking at six followers of Jesus who were called to suffer – James and John, Mary, Stephen, Peter and Paul. As we examine something of their stories and what they were told about suffering, the intention is that this will help us to place our own suffering within our faith in Jesus Christ so that it can be further used for God’s purpose.

One of the major tasks before us as a church in 2016 is to increase our giving. This includes the giving of our lives in service to God using the gifts and talents that he has given us, both within our community at Christ Church and beyond it. But it also includes our financial giving. This is reflected in our Motto Verse for 2016 from 1 Corinthians 16.2:

‘On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will need to be made’

At present we have a large amount of people regularly attending Christ Church who do not yet give a realistic amount of their money to the church on a regular basis. This is something that needs to change if Christ Church is going to fulfil God’s desires for our mission and ministry. During February, the talks across all three of our services will focus upon giving and encourage the growth of this important part of our discipleship and response to God’s grace.

One of the major tasks before us as a church in 2016 is to increase our giving. This includes the giving of our lives in service to God using the gifts and talents that he has given us, both within our community at Christ Church and beyond it. But it also includes our financial giving. This is reflected in our Motto Verse for 2016 from 1 Corinthians 16.2:

‘On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will need to be made’

At present we have a large amount of people regularly attending Christ Church who do not yet give a realistic amount of their money to the church on a regular basis. This is something that needs to change if Christ Church is going to fulfil God’s desires for our mission and ministry. During February, the talks across all three of our services will focus upon giving and encourage the growth of this important part of our discipleship and response to God’s grace.

One of the major tasks before us as a church in 2016 is to increase our giving. This includes the giving of our lives in service to God using the gifts and talents that he has given us, both within our community at Christ Church and beyond it. But it also includes our financial giving. This is reflected in our Motto Verse for 2016 from 1 Corinthians 16.2:

‘On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will need to be made’

At present we have a large amount of people regularly attending Christ Church who do not yet give a realistic amount of their money to the church on a regular basis. This is something that needs to change if Christ Church is going to fulfil God’s desires for our mission and ministry. During February, the talks across all three of our services will focus upon giving and encourage the growth of this important part of our discipleship and response to God’s grace.

Lent is traditionally a period for taking time out to focus upon and deepen our relationship with God. During this series, we will look afresh at the three areas where God might be challenging us to seek further renewal. The aim, as we look at prayer, fasting and fellowship, will be seeking to find new ways in which we can use these vital resources that God has given to nourish our relationship with him and make us more effective in his service.

Lent is traditionally a period for taking time out to focus upon and deepen our relationship with God. During this series, we will look afresh at the three areas where God might be challenging us to seek further renewal. The aim, as we look at prayer, fasting and fellowship, will be seeking to find new ways in which we can use these vital resources that God has given to nourish our relationship with him and make us more effective in his service.

If we are open to seeing him, God is all around us including within areas that we might not think we are meant to look for him. During this series, we will look at the four areas of Literature, History, Science and Film and, in each one of them, look for how they can open our eyes more fully to the nature and purpose of the God whom we worship.

Widespread confusion still exists amongst both believers and non-believers in regard to the Christian hope. The Bible, however, is quite clear that the Christian hope is our physical resurrection into a new creation. During this post-Easter series we will look at the implications of this for what will happen to our bodies and creation itself as well as the controversial area of what will happen to people with disabilities.

The resurrection of Jesus transformed everything for his followers. During this post-Easter series we will look at three of its most obvious effects upon the early church in people coming to faith, its radical community and the acts of healing that occurred through it. Living also in post-Easter times, we will then consider the challenge that each of these brings to us at Christ Church.

One of the most important things that we should be doing as a church is showing how Christianity can make a difference to our lives. When people become Christians, their problems don’t disappear and in some ways their lives become more difficult. What we are promised, however, is that God will be with us helping us with these issues and difficulties in a whole number of ways. During this series we will look a number of issues affecting of daily lives and try to unpack some of the practical ways in which our Christian faith can make a difference as we seek to respond to them.

Luke’s gospel contains many special emphases. These include Jesus’ particular love for the poor and marginalised and his teaching about the dangers of wealth. These emphases particularly stand out within the material that only occurs in Luke and is absent from Matthew, Mark and John. During this series (which will continue into July) we will study a number of these stories as we seek to apply the radical challenge of the third gospel to our daily lives and our life as a church.

The letter to the Hebrews forms one sustained argument concerning the indispensable nature of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Those to whom the letter was written were in danger of giving up and retreating into the old ways of thinking that had sustained them before they came to faith in Jesus. The writer of Hebrews was determined to encourage them to keep going chiefly through showing how all the Jewish ritual and belief that came before was pointing God’s people ahead to what Jesus would achieve. Studying the letter and its argument can encourage us, within a rather different context, to persevere in our faith by focusing us upon the significance of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

Developing leadership, including the leadership of those who are young, is a vital part of any growing church. The Pastoral Epistles within the New Testament are particularly focused upon the qualities needed within leaders and during this series we will look at one of these epistles in Paul’s second letter to Timothy. As we follow Paul coaching Timothy about personal boldness, holiness and suffering as well as how to how to handle the Scriptures, it will hopefully serve to inspire more members of Christ Church towards the greater leadership that we need if we are to grow further.

All Christians are called to proclaim God’s Word in our daily lives with a whole variety of different ways in which this can be done. Within the Bible we get a number of accounts of such calls with each containing different emphases that we can learn from. During this series we will look at the calls of Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul and finally … Tom Collins on the Sunday that he, Helen, Joshua and Timothy leave to train for ordained ministry at Trinity College Bristol.

All of us need practical advice and teaching if we are going to develop in our Christian faith. The Bible is full of such help and during this series we will seek to uncover more of what it has to say about how to pray, how to share our faith, how to bring God’s healing and how to build up others. Rather than just listen to these talks, it will be good if they prompt discussion afterwards (perhaps in the pub!) about how we can put into practice what we learn.

Our building project at Christ Church will soon be completed and, by a happy ‘God-incidence’, during our 150th year. The story of its development, however, has sadly been a mixed one with nearly ten years of delay caused by endless opposition. A similar opposition was present when the church was reordered in 2006-7 and when the lounge and kitchen were built in 1980-81. The book of Nehemiah is often rather neglected but is instructive in presenting the challenge that will always be present when God’s people attempt such tasks. As we study the book, we will also see the role of faith, prayer, courage, integrity and commitment in ensuring that our new buildings serve God’s purpose in bringing more of his loving rule to New Malden.

Found in Matthew 5-7, ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ contains some of the most radical teaching that Jesus ever gave. Much of it is extremely counter-intuitive and commanding us to live in a completely different way to the surrounding world. It is when the church lives in this way, however, that Christianity becomes dynamic, exciting and life changing rather than dull and conventional. As we explore the Sermon during this series, our prayer will be that God will use it to make us into a more radical, faithful and life-changing community.

Chapter 4 of Mark’s Gospel contains a cluster of Jesus’ teaching. Three of the four parables contained within it use the metaphor of farmers, seeds and soils to teach us about the nature of the Kingdom of God. Some of these stories are very familiar but during this series we will seek to unpack them afresh and understand more of the challenge that they are bringing to both Christ Church and our lives.

Regular churchgoers have usually heard hundreds of sermons on the Gospels. Very often, however, these sermons avoid those major sections towards the end of Matthew, Mark and Luke where Jesus proclaimed God’s judgement upon Jerusalem. This is because very few understand how this message related to the rest of his ministry. During this series we will look at these passages and try and understand their importance in regard to the saving death of Jesus Christ that occurred shortly after he spoke these words.

‘Gospel’ means ‘Good News’ and specifically ‘The Good News that God has come to rescue his people in Jesus Christ’. This leaves us, however, with a number of questions about the nature of this rescue and what is included within it. During this series we will take four questions about Jesus and ask how key things that he said or did relate to the Good News that he came to proclaim and embody.

Alongside our traditional Christmas services, there will be a number of services during Advent where our preachers pick out a single verse from the Christmas stories. They will then go onto explain how the verse and its contents sums up Christmas for them. For many of us there is deep familiarity about the Christmas stories which can serve to dull their impact upon us. The idea behind this series is that certain key verses will then stay with us throughout the Christmas period and help us reflect more deeply on the wonder of what God did when he sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world.

(Note: whilst collected under the United Service banner for convenience - being as the series were quite short, slotted as they were between the 150th Anniversary service and the usual Christmas services - two of these talks were actually at the 11am service, and the other at the six30 service.)