Past Preaching Programme

The most distinctive mark of Christians is meant to be our love for one another. It is also the factor that, more than any other, will attract people to join Christ Church and see the reality of Jesus Christ. However, it is also the aspect of our Christian discipleship that we usually find most difficult to fulfil. The reason why the Motto Verse for 2019 has been chosen is the recognition that loving one another is something that we need to do better as a church. During this series, we will look at the different aspects of love contained in Paul’s instructions in Ephesians 4.2-3 and seek to discover more about how we can fulfil these within our church life together. The aim is to bring healing to some of our divisions so that we can fulfil our mission and ministry more effectively.

The most distinctive mark of Christians is meant to be our love for one another. It is also the factor that, more than any other, will attract people to join Christ Church and see the reality of Jesus Christ. However, it is also the aspect of our Christian discipleship that we usually find most difficult to fulfil. The reason why the Motto Verse for 2019 has been chosen is the recognition that loving one another is something that we need to do better as a church. During this series, we will look at the different aspects of love contained in Paul’s instructions in Ephesians 4.2-3 and seek to discover more about how we can fulfil these within our church life together. The aim is to bring healing to some of our divisions so that we can fulfil our mission and ministry more effectively.

The most distinctive mark of Christians is meant to be our love for one another. It is also the factor that, more than any other, will attract people to join Christ Church and see the reality of Jesus Christ. However, it is also the aspect of our Christian discipleship that we usually find most difficult to fulfil. The reason why the Motto Verse for 2019 has been chosen is the recognition that loving one another is something that we need to do better as a church. During this series, we will look at the different aspects of love contained in Paul’s instructions in Ephesians 4.2-3 and seek to discover more about how we can fulfil these within our church life together. The aim is to bring healing to some of our divisions so that we can fulfil our mission and ministry more effectively.

St Paul says a great deal about God’s love in his letters and how it should transform the lives of Jesus’ followers. During this series, we will look at what he says about this in 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Philemon and Romans and the practical ways in which we can reflect this love in our church life together.

We learn most about God when we look at Jesus and this particularly applies to the nature and extent of God’s love. During this series, we will look at a number of the interactions that Jesus has with people in Mark’s Gospel and ponder what each of them reveal about God’s love. This will then form the basis for thinking about practical ways in which we can reflect this love more fully in our life as a church.

The Old Testament is sometimes seen as presenting a God who is less loving than the one that we encounter within the New Testament. However, from its very beginning the Bible is the story of God’s love with all of its other emphases serving to highlight rather than detract from this central theme. During this series, we will look at a number of the key passages from the Old Testament, what they particularly reveal about the nature of God’s love and how this should change us.

‘The Five Marks of Mission’ is an attempt to clarify the different aspects of the church’s missionary calling so that none are neglected. These are:

1. To Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
2. To Teach, Baptise and Nurture New Believers
3. To Respond to Human Need by Loving Service
4. To Transform Unjust Structures of Society, to Challenge Violence of every kind and pursue Peace and Reconciliation
5. To Strive to Safeguard the Integrity of Creation and Sustain and Renew the Life of the Earth

During March we will look at each of the ‘marks of mission’ in turn and think about the practical ways in which God is calling us to implement them within our life at Christ Church.

‘The Five Marks of Mission’ is an attempt to clarify the different aspects of the church’s missionary calling so that none are neglected. These are:

1. To Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
2. To Teach, Baptise and Nurture New Believers
3. To Respond to Human Need by Loving Service
4. To Transform Unjust Structures of Society, to Challenge Violence of every kind and pursue Peace and Reconciliation
5. To Strive to Safeguard the Integrity of Creation and Sustain and Renew the Life of the Earth

During March we will look at each of the ‘marks of mission’ in turn and think about the practical ways in which God is calling us to implement them within our life at Christ Church.

‘The Five Marks of Mission’ is an attempt to clarify the different aspects of the church’s missionary calling so that none are neglected. These are:

1. To Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
2. To Teach, Baptise and Nurture New Believers
3. To Respond to Human Need by Loving Service
4. To Transform Unjust Structures of Society, to Challenge Violence of every kind and pursue Peace and Reconciliation
5. To Strive to Safeguard the Integrity of Creation and Sustain and Renew the Life of the Earth

During March we will look at each of the ‘marks of mission’ in turn and think about the practical ways in which God is calling us to implement them within our life at Christ Church.

Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ stand at the heart of our Christian faith. However, it is easy for there to be large parts of both the Easter story and its implications for us today that we fail to understand. Too often these questions remain unanswered because we are too embarrassed to ask them. Across all of our services during April, we will seek to ask a series of searching questions about the story of Easter and its meaning. The aim is to strengthen our faith and discipleship by developing our understanding of how the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ changed the world forever.

Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ stand at the heart of our Christian faith. However, it is easy for there to be large parts of both the Easter story and its implications for us today that we fail to understand. Too often these questions remain unanswered because we are too embarrassed to ask them. Across all of our services during April, we will seek to ask a series of searching questions about the story of Easter and its meaning. The aim is to strengthen our faith and discipleship by developing our understanding of how the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ changed the world forever.

Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ stand at the heart of our Christian faith. However, it is easy for there to be large parts of both the Easter story and its implications for us today that we fail to understand. Too often these questions remain unanswered because we are too embarrassed to ask them. Across all of our services during April, we will seek to ask a series of searching questions about the story of Easter and its meaning. The aim is to strengthen our faith and discipleship by developing our understanding of how the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ changed the world forever.

Peter is one of the most vivid characters in the New Testament. Within the gospels, he is the impetuous Galilean fishermen that Jesus calls to follow him, getting as much wrong as he gets right. Then, within the Acts of the Apostles, we then see Peter as a key leader within the early church speaking and acting with the authority of the risen Jesus. During this series, we will look at several of the key episodes involving Peter and seek to learn from the very different aspects of his discipleship.

Christ Church possesses a number of very beautiful stained glass windows. Although the church has existed for over 150 years, most of the windows come from the period between 1896 and 1919. There are just three exceptions from 1878, 1965 and 2001.

Each of the windows possesses a particular story connected with it, usually concerning former members of the church for whom it was given in memory. In virtually all cases, their actual content, however, is focused upon a biblical story or theme that was understood to speak powerfully into the context of that person’s life or contribution to the church.

Writing in the April 1896 Parish Magazine about the window given in memory of Arthur Herbert Streeter and depicting Jesus as the Good Shepherd and the Light of the World, the second Vicar of Christ Church, the Reverend William Allen Challacombe said these words

‘The eye is a medium of knowledge as well as the ear; and we shall pray that the Spirit of God may glorify Christ through these windows, which will reveal him as Saviour and Guide’

During this series we will seek to reflect the aim of Mr Challacombe’s prayer. Using research that we have undertaken, we will explore what we know about the human stories behind the windows. This is to serve the greater aim of reflecting upon the biblical truths that they display and pondering how these truths can further shape and impact upon our lives.

Particularly when it comes to the Old Testament, it is easy for Christians to know the Bible as collection of isolated stories rather than having any handle on its nature as a coherent narrative. The Bible Project is a brilliant collection of videos aiming to help Christians grasp ‘the bigger picture’ within which the contents of the Bible makes their greatest sense. During this series, we will use these videos to help us grasp the shape and message of the books in the early part of the Old Testament. The sermons that follow will aim to provide greater clarity on the ‘bigger picture’ of each book so that we can all move forward in how we approach and understand the Bible and apply its content to our lives.

The New Testament is clear that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ lie at the centre of his mission to bring God’s forgiveness and restoration to the world. Often, however, we are rather unclear about how the distinctive activities of Jesus related to this. During this series we will think about this question and the part played in Jesus’ mission by his exorcisms, his parables, his healings and his prayer.

The Wisdom Literature contains little explicit mention of themes that the rest of the Bible makes central. All of them, however, address in different ways the question of what sort of world are we living in and what it looks like to live well in that world. During this series we will look at Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job and the Song of Songs and think about the wisdom we can gain from their different perspectives.

Practical atheism – living large parts of our lives without any reference at all to God – is very easy for us to drift into. But God is relevant to every part of our lives, and during this series we will take four areas of our lives – our pets, our holidays, bereavement and parenting – and think about how a Christian perspective both can and should dramatically change our approach to them.

God will often change our lives through the impact of the lives of other people. During this series, four members of Christ Church will talk about a Christian who changed their life and what it was that this person said or did that made such an impact on them. The aim is to both encourage thankfulness for the way in which God has worked through others to bless our lives and also to recognise the impact that we too can have for God in the lives of others.

A recurring covenantal phrase associated with God throughout the Old Testament is ‘The LORD… the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin’ (Exodus 34.6; Numbers 14.18; Nehemiah 9.17; Psalms 86.15; 103.8; 145.8; Joel 2.13; Jonah 4.2). As Jesus fulfils the covenant we see all of these characteristics displayed in his ministry, and during this series we will explore each of them and their significance.

God’s covenant is a recurring theme throughout the Bible, with each of its different stages adding something vital to the story of its path to fulfilment. At the six30 service during September and October we will work through the different stages of the covenant that God successively makes with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and which the prophets then speak of coming to its fulfilment in the coming of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and reaching its consummation in the New Creation.

Romans is commonly regarded as Paul’s greatest letter. What is recognised less often is its nature as an exposition of the covenant. During this series we will work through Romans seeking to follow Paul’s careful explanation of how the covenant appeared to be in jeopardy because of Israel’s sin, only to find its surprising solution in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Romans is somewhat complex, and understanding its contents will involve grappling with technical terms such as ‘righteousness’ and ‘justification’, as well as the issues involved as Gentiles became members of God’s people alongside Jewish Christians. But the aim is to make full sense of the practical teaching that Paul gives at the end of the letter about the sort of church that we should aspire to become in the light of the covenant love of the God who has rescued us in Jesus Christ.

Food and drink are part of God’s good creation. However as with everything good that God has given, it is all too possible for us to use these things in a manner that is harmful to us, to others and to creation itself. During October, we will therefore look at some of the ways this can happen, how it can be avoided, and how we can have a properly Christian approach to our food and drink.

Luke’s Gospel has a particular focus on God’s love in Jesus for those on the margins of society. This very much included women, and during this series we will look at four episodes from the gospel when women were encountered by Jesus and had their lives transformed by God’s love.

Our lives are full of things that frustrate and perplex us. Often it is very hard to combine honestly and openness about these struggles with ongoing faith and trust in God. A number of the psalms model this, and during this series we will use four of them to think through how we keep the conversation with God going when we feel forgotten, forsaken, rejected and abandoned by him.

However familiar they are, the Christmas story always contains more to teach us. During this series we will take the words spoken about Jesus by Gabriel, Elizabeth and Mary and ponder what they have to teach us about the significance of the coming of Jesus Christ.

Part of our calling as Christians is to look for God in every part of our lives. Paradoxically, the run up to Christmas can be one of the most difficult times to do this as we are surrounded by so much busyness and stress. During this series we will look at a number of different aspects of the Christmas season and consider where God might be found within them.

A central claim of the New Testament is how every strand of the Old Testament story was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. During this series we will look at how this was true in the case of four of the prophets and the different insights that Isaiah, Micah, Malachi and Daniel give us about the significance of the coming of Jesus Christ.