Past Preaching Programme

At the heart of the Christian faith is belief in a God of utter generosity and self-giving – supremely in his Son, Jesus Christ – but also in the many other good things that he gives to us. A major part of our Christian faith is then allowing his grace to be demonstrated in our lives through the growth within them of a similar spirit of generosity and giving.

The fantastic response to the recent appeal to refurbish the entrance to Christ Church has been a wonderful example of this and during this series we will think more about the nature and role of giving within our Christian faith. This will start by reflecting on God the Giver before proceeding to think about two decisive strands within Christian giving – giving as a response to God’s grace and then as a response to the practical needs of the Church. The aim is that this series – across all of our services – is part of helping us towards a situation where the finances of Christ Church are placed on a more secure footing with all of our members considering where God is challenging and encouraging us in this regard.

At the heart of the Christian faith is belief in a God of utter generosity and self-giving – supremely in his Son, Jesus Christ – but also in the many other good things that he gives to us. A major part of our Christian faith is then allowing his grace to be demonstrated in our lives through the growth within them of a similar spirit of generosity and giving.

The fantastic response to the recent appeal to refurbish the entrance to Christ Church has been a wonderful example of this and during this series we will think more about the nature and role of giving within our Christian faith. This will start by reflecting on God the Giver before proceeding to think about two decisive strands within Christian giving – giving as a response to God’s grace and then as a response to the practical needs of the Church. The aim is that this series – across all of our services – is part of helping us towards a situation where the finances of Christ Church are placed on a more secure footing with all of our members considering where God is challenging and encouraging us in this regard.

At the heart of the Christian faith is belief in a God of utter generosity and self-giving – supremely in his Son, Jesus Christ – but also in the many other good things that he gives to us. A major part of our Christian faith is then allowing his grace to be demonstrated in our lives through the growth within them of a similar spirit of generosity and giving.

The fantastic response to the recent appeal to refurbish the entrance to Christ Church has been a wonderful example of this and during this series we will think more about the nature and role of giving within our Christian faith. This will start by reflecting on God the Giver before proceeding to think about two decisive strands within Christian giving – giving as a response to God’s grace and then as a response to the practical needs of the Church. The aim is that this series – across all of our services – is part of helping us towards a situation where the finances of Christ Church are placed on a more secure footing with all of our members considering where God is challenging and encouraging us in this regard.

Christmas is often a rather mixed experience with its happiness and joy combined with a great amount of stress and business. Many traditions, seemingly unrelated to the coming of Jesus Christ, have also sprung up around Christmas bringing a good deal of confusion. During this short series, we will try to explore how Jesus can be found in such unfamiliar places at Christmas time. David Taylor will help us to understand how God can be found within Charles Dickens’ famous novel, A Christmas Carol and Janet Miles will do the same with ‘the madness of Christmas’.

In the earliest parts of Matthew’s Gospel, its writer refers several times to the way in which the coming of Jesus Christ fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets. Key events in the Christmas story are shown to bring to fulfilment what was spoken by Isaiah, Micah, Hosea and Jeremiah. In most of these cases, it not easy to understand what the writer of Matthew’s gospel means and it can appear that he has taken these Old Testament references out of context. Careful attention to their context, however, reveals that this is far from the case. Their role is to illuminate truths about Jesus that we otherwise might miss. During this series, we will look at each of these passages and seek to understand the way in which the coming of Jesus Christ brought the whole of the Old Testament story to its surprising climax and fulfilment.

The book of Judges is a rather depressing read. As well as the people of Israel going from bad to worse, this is even true of the deliverers that God sends to rescue his people. The last of these twelve judges is Samson, famous for the extraordinary strength which God gave him. However the story of Samson is as tragic as the rest of the book of Judges with its central character displaying a great deal of disastrous weakness alongside his strength. During this series, we will look at the life of this tragic figure and try to understand what it is seeking to teach us about God and the things that we need to understand as we seek to follow him more faithfully.

C.S. Lewis was one of the greatest Christian writers of the twentieth century, producing a number of books that have had a transforming effect upon the lives of millions of people. The most famous of his writings are The Chronicles of Narnia. In recent years, far more has been discovered about what Lewis was up to when he wrote the Narnia stories. This has indicated that their significance is even more profound than was previously recognised. During this series we will look at each of the seven Narnia stories in the light of the biblical truths that they are seeking to illuminate, with the aim of helping us to understand the God revealed in Jesus Christ more fully.

Within our lives we confront a whole variety of different issues. Some of these issues are deeply personal to us, whilst others possess a more national or global nature. The wisdom contained in the Bible can be applied to any subject, however modern, and help us to make greater sense of those things upon which we might otherwise remain confused. During this series, we will seek to tackle a number of very different subjects and, in each case, we will seek to gain a greater understanding by reflecting upon what a Christian perspective has to say into them.

During this series, our sermons will use the book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero to explore the vital connection between Christians growing towards spiritual maturity and confronting our emotional issues. Scazzero is a church leader in America who had to learn this lesson the hard way and his book is the result of God leading him to a biblical integration of emotional health, a relationship with Jesus and the classic practices of contemplative spirituality. This will be a tough series as we explore the all too common signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality but the aim to help all of us to move further towards the fullness of life that God intends us to discover through our relationship with him.

The Old Testament prophets were charged with bringing God’s word to his people. Their messages particularly interpreted the political and social events that were occurring around the people of Israel and what God was doing and saying through these events. Very often these were messages that the people were less than willing to hear, with a major emphasis upon God’s judgement. The prophets combined these messages, however, with the belief that judgement would not be God’s final word and the hope that he would eventual fulfil his covenant purposes for his people and the world. During this series we will look at the messages of the Twelve ‘Minor’ Prophets and seek to discern what God is saying to our contemporary situation through them.

God wants all of us to be constantly growing in our relationship with him. Sometimes this process will happen more through the tough times in our lives than those moments where we feel most obviously blessed. Being honest about this can be a great encouragement to others as they go through difficult times in their own lives and wonder where God can be found in it all. During this series, four members of Christ Church will share the experiences that they have had over the last five years of their lives and the most important things that they have learnt about God during this period.

The Bible is full of exciting visions of what God intends to do for the world and for those who follow him. Much of the Christian life is about trying to catch God’s vision for our common life together and the work that he is calling his people to do. During this series we will look at various different parts of the life of Christ Church and its members, and seek to discern what God wants these roles and ministries to look like as we move forward. In the 151st year of Christ Church and alongside the opening of the new halls that we have built for children and young people, it is an opportune moment to reshape our agendas in the light of the vision that God will reveal as we seek his will.

The Bible is full of exciting visions of what God intends to do for the world and for those who follow him. Much of the Christian life is about trying to catch God’s vision for our common life together and the work that he is calling his people to do. During this series we will look at various different parts of the life of Christ Church and its members, and seek to discern what God wants these roles and ministries to look like as we move forward. In the 151st year of Christ Church and alongside the opening of the new halls that we have built for children and young people, it is an opportune moment to reshape our agendas in the light of the vision that God will reveal as we seek his will.

The Bible is full of exciting visions of what God intends to do for the world and for those who follow him. Much of the Christian life is about trying to catch God’s vision for our common life together and the work that he is calling his people to do. During this series we will look at various different parts of the life of Christ Church and its members, and seek to discern what God wants these roles and ministries to look like as we move forward. In the 151st year of Christ Church and alongside the opening of the new halls that we have built for children and young people, it is an opportune moment to reshape our agendas in the light of the vision that God will reveal as we seek his will.

One of the most vivid characters in the gospels is that of Peter, with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John writing their accounts in a manner that gives us a great deal of insight into his personality. Mark is probably based on the testimony and teaching of Peter himself. The result of this is a huge amount of detail about how this particular man learnt to follow Jesus through a whole set of varied situations. As much through his mistakes as his successes, studying Peter can help us a great deal as we seek to learn more about how to follow Jesus.

The Christian life should be one of constant discovery, as we learn new things about God and what he has done for us in Jesus Christ. One of the reasons why the Bible contains so much narrative is precisely to facilitate this. During this series, we will look at a number of very familiar Christian beliefs and ask fresh questions about their significance and implications for how we live our lives. Ascension Day, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday are all important points in the Christian calendar and are included within this series as we seek to grapple with what these occasions represent and how this should shape our life at Christ Church. The Bishop of Kingston will also be helping us on 21st May to think afresh about the relationship between Science and Christianity.

The Christian life should be one of constant discovery, as we learn new things about God and what he has done for us in Jesus Christ. One of the reasons why the Bible contains so much narrative is precisely to facilitate this. During this series, we will look at a number of very familiar Christian beliefs and ask fresh questions about their significance and implications for how we live our lives. Ascension Day, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday are all important points in the Christian calendar and are included within this series as we seek to grapple with what these occasions represent and how this should shape our life at Christ Church. The Bishop of Kingston will also be helping us on 21 st May to think afresh about the relationship between Science and Christianity.

C.S. Lewis was one of the greatest Christian apologists of the twentieth century, producing a number of books that have had a transforming effect on the lives of millions of people. The most famous of his writing are The Chronicles of Narnia. In recent years a great deal more has been discovered about what Lewis was up to when he wrote the Narnia stories, revealed that their significance even more profound that was previously recognised. During this series we will look at each of the seven Narnia stories in the light of the biblical truths that they are seeking to illuminate, with the aim of our hearts and minds being stirred to understand the God revealed in Jesus Christ more fully.

The main characters who dominated the book of Acts are Peter in its first half and Paul in its second. However a number of other characters appear in its narrative as Acts tells us the story of what Jesus continued to do, through the apostles and by the power of the Holy Spirit. During this series we will examine these ‘lesser characters’ and see what we can learn from their examples and role in the spread of God’s Word.

During Paul’s first missionary journey, he and Barnabas took the Good News of Jesus from their base in Antioch to the island of Cyprus and then a number of towns in modern day Turkey. Sadly, a row between Paul and Barnabas prevented them from working together again and on his Second Journey, Paul was accompanied by Silas and later Timothy and others. During this series we will look at their journey and what happened as the Gospel of Jesus Christ came to Macedonia and Greece and its great cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens and Corinth. Seeing how Paul sought to connect the gospel to these cultures has a great deal to teach us about its relevance to the cultures in which we live today.

TED talks are a number of high quality monologues by leading experts on a whole range of topical subjects. Accessed through the Internet, they have been watched by thousands of people. During this series we will watch four of these talks and then listen to a Christian response to their contents. All truth is God’s truth and a thorough Christian evaluation of the wisdom on offer in our world is an important part of both following Jesus Christ and proclaiming him to the world.

Many of the Psalms express the strongest emotions possible as their writers bring their problems before God. This is precisely why they can bring us so much help and during this series we will use a number of the Psalms to help us bring our faith in God to bear upon the difficulties which we face.

Paul was the first great missionary of the Christian church and on his first missionary journey in AD 46-49 he planted a number of new churches in Cyprus and modern day Turkey. As Christ Church seeks to be a missionary church, we can learn much from the difficulties that Paul and his companions faced and the way the Holy Spirit worked through them to proclaim Jesus Christ.

If the six30 service is to grow and reach its full potential, we need to possess much greater clarity about what God is calling the service to be. The aim of this series at the start of 2017 is to play a key role in shaping and developing this vision. During January we need to be praying that God will help us clarify this vision so that we can then be led into ways of putting it into practice.

The New Testament contains a great deal of St Paul’s prayer for both the churches that he planted and ministered to and individuals within them. During this series we will look at the different prayers Paul says as we seek to learn more about how we can develop our own prayer lives.

Christian faith is only meaningful when it affects the way that we live and, in particular, when it leads us to serve God. This can be done in many ways but during this series we will look at a number of practical ways in which we can serve God at Christ Church. Many of these involve discovering the power that is unleashed when people cross social boundaries with God’s love.

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.)

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.

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.