Past Preaching Programme

There sometimes seem to be as many different opinions about what Christ Church should be like as there are members of it! Particularly at six30 @ ccnm! One possibility is that God will reveal the way in which all these perspectives can somehow be reconciled. Another is that he will reveal more of his vision for what the church should be like and we become obedient to this. During this series we will use Paul’s letter to the Ephesians to seek to grasp more of God’s vision for the church. Within this letter (probably sent to a wider group of churches than just the one at Ephesus), crucial themes concerning the church are unpacked. These include the Church’s purpose within God’s overall plan of salvation, the vital nature of its oneness and the radically different way of living that its members are called to in the light of this. Much of the challenge to Christ Church lies in us being clearer about the first two of these which will then help us to make much greater sense of the third.

1 Samuel tells the story of the establishment of Israel’s monarchy and reflects considerable ambivalence about this because of the spirit of independence from God that Israel’s desire for a king represented. Ultimately this development nonetheless became part of God’s plan of salvation, with God’s covenant with King David becoming a vital part of this. Before this, however, Saul was the first king of Israel and during this series we will follow the events of his reign from his anointing to his rejection as king. Deeply realistic about human flaws and their consequences, these stories have much to teach us about sin and its effects whilst also providing the vital groundwork for the further revelation of God’s grace that they lead onto.

Even if we haven’t been church-goers for long, it is very easy for our Christianity to become rather dulled by overfamiliarity. One of the challenges of the Christian life is to be constantly open to those fresh insights that the Holy Spirit is looking to reveal to us. During this series, we will seek to do this by looking at a number of features of church life and also stories from the Bible which are, at one level, extremely familiar to many of us. However, with the help of some of our newer preachers, we will particularly focus upon the exciting new insights that can be drawn from looking at them afresh and the challenge they present to us today.

At the first and last Sundays of July, we will have two celebratory services – the first to celebrate the life of Christ Church School and the second to mark the end of Holiday Club. For the three Sundays inbetween, we will look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians and its perspective upon the Gospel or Good News of Jesus Christ. Galatians is by some way Paul’s fiercest letter because of his staunch opposition to the segregation that some were suggesting should be present between Jewish and Gentile Christians. The letter has as much to say to us today about the radical unity across boundaries that normally divide the world that lies at the heart of the Christian faith.

1 Samuel narrates the journey that Israel made towards the establishment of a monarchy. As it tells this story, however, the book is extremely frank about the flaws present within God’s people and their leaders, both before and after this point. During this series, which will continue in the autumn, we will look to see what the book has to teach us about human frailty and the way in which God interacts with and uses this weakness to enable his plan of salvation to move forward.

Once of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit is to bring further unity amongst Christians. Sadly the very opposite has often occurred with many denominations and churches dividing over issues such as how open they should be to gifts of the Holy Spirit such as prophecy, healing and speaking in tongues. These issues have very much arisen at six30 recently with some keen for the service to become more ‘charismatic’ whilst others are wary of this. During this series we will look at what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and some of the services will be followed by discussion in the lounge. In August this will then be followed by different people telling stories of the work of the Holy Spirit. The hope is that all this focus upon the Holy Spirit will form an important part of the development of the worship and life of Christ Church.

It is one thing to sing and speak of certain Christian truths in our church services and quite another to let these truths change the way in which we live. During this series we will in look in turn at a number of key Christian beliefs and ask how and why we should live differently in the light of them. These will begin with truths connected with Easter before proceeding to those celebrated on Ascension Day, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. We will then do the same with beliefs about the Church and Eschatology (Christian beliefs about ‘how it will all end up’). The aim of the series is to help us learn more about how practical these doctrines are and how living in the light of them can and should make a genuine difference to our lives.

When people start coming to church it is usually the community that they experience that makes the most obvious difference. Much of what is sung and spoken about in the services makes rather less sense to them. During this series we will therefore be asking why it is that Christians attach such importance to certain beliefs. Why is belief in God and Jesus so important? At a slightly deeper level, why are the specific beliefs about them celebrated at Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday seen as so critical? The series will conclude by asking the same question of Christian beliefs about other aspects of life. Hopefully the series will help us see with clarity the connection between the community that we encounter at Christ Church and the beliefs underlying this.

During Holy Week and then into Easter we will take a fresh look at the stories in the gospels and what they are trying to emphasise. Before Easter this will involve looking at some of the details contained within the Easter stories, thinking about why they are there and pondering what the Gospels mean when they proclaim that ‘God became King’. After Easter Day we will then look at two of the key characters in the Easter stories – Mary Magdalene and Peter – and try to learn more about the relevance of the Resurrection from the way in which it transformed their lives.

During Holy Week and then into Easter we will take a fresh look at the stories in the gospels and what they are trying to emphasise. Before Easter this will involve looking at some of the details contained within the Easter stories, thinking about why they are there and pondering what the Gospels mean when they proclaim that ‘God became King’. After Easter Day we will then look at two of the key characters in the Easter stories – Mary Magdalene and Peter – and try to learn more about the relevance of the Resurrection from the way in which it transformed their lives.

When Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Day it changed the world forever. Within the stories contained in the New Testament we see a number of examples of this transformation within the lives of people who encountered the risen Jesus. During this series we will look at a number of these stories and consider the ways in which the power of the resurrection can transform sorrow, doubt, guilt and hatred. But rather than just seeing how this was true for Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Peter and Paul, it is intended to be an opportunity for us to consider how the resurrection might further transform such characteristics within our own lives as well.

The new Bishop of Southwark, Christopher Chessun recently announced a call to mission across the diocese entitled ‘Faith, Hope and Love’. This will take place in three stages. The first of these, over the season of Lent in 2012, is the encouragement of individuals within each church to think about the ways in which they could show more of these virtues.

In response to this call, all of our sermons across the first three weeks of March will focus on the themes of ‘Living by Faith’, ‘Sharing Hope’ and ‘Showing Love’. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul speaks of ‘Faith, Hope and Love’ as the things that, when everything else has passed away, will continue into the new creation that God will one day bring. These sermons will therefore seek to be practical and encourage us all to think about very concrete and specific ways in which we could develop these virtues more in our everyday lives.

25th March will then be slightly different with a focus on two very specific examples of mission to the outside world. During the three morning services that day we will focus on ‘World Water Day’ becoming better informed on this crucial issue and thinking about how we might respond. At six30@ccnm that day we will focus upon ‘The Night Shelter as Gospel’ as Christ Church hosts a special service for all those who were involved in the KCAH (Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness) Shelter this year.

The new Bishop of Southwark, Christopher Chessun recently announced a call to mission across the diocese entitled ‘Faith, Hope and Love’. This will take place in three stages. The first of these, over the season of Lent in 2012, is the encouragement of individuals within each church to think about the ways in which they could show more of these virtues.

In response to this call, all of our sermons across the first three weeks of March will focus on the themes of ‘Living by Faith’, ‘Sharing Hope’ and ‘Showing Love’. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul speaks of ‘Faith, Hope and Love’ as the things that, when everything else has passed away, will continue into the new creation that God will one day bring. These sermons will therefore seek to be practical and encourage us all to think about very concrete and specific ways in which we could develop these virtues more in our everyday lives.

25th March will then be slightly different with a focus on two very specific examples of mission to the outside world. During the three morning services that day we will focus on ‘World Water Day’ becoming better informed on this crucial issue and thinking about how we might respond. At six30@ccnm that day we will focus upon ‘The Night Shelter as Gospel’ as Christ Church hosts a special service for all those who were involved in the KCAH (Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness) Shelter this year.

The new Bishop of Southwark, Christopher Chessun recently announced a call to mission across the diocese entitled ‘Faith, Hope and Love’. This will take place in three stages. The first of these, over the season of Lent in 2012, is the encouragement of individuals within each church to think about the ways in which they could show more of these virtues.

In response to this call, all of our sermons across the first three weeks of March will focus on the themes of ‘Living by Faith’, ‘Sharing Hope’ and ‘Showing Love’. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul speaks of ‘Faith, Hope and Love’ as the things that, when everything else has passed away, will continue into the new creation that God will one day bring. These sermons will therefore seek to be practical and encourage us all to think about very concrete and specific ways in which we could develop these virtues more in our everyday lives.

25th March will then be slightly different with a focus on two very specific examples of mission to the outside world. During the three morning services that day we will focus on ‘World Water Day’ becoming better informed on this crucial issue and thinking about how we might respond. At six30@ccnm that day we will focus upon ‘The Night Shelter as Gospel’ as Christ Church hosts a special service for all those who were involved in the KCAH (Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness) Shelter this year.

Having looked at areas in which we can serve God, we turn in February to look at some of the resources that he has given to help us do this. Again seeking to be practical, we will look at the ways in which receiving God’s Word, Prayer, Worship and the Sacraments can both renew and equip us to become part of God’s mission to the world.

Following January’s series on idolatry, the talks in this series will focus upon making a positive response to those things we are tempted to make into idols. Place things like our friendships, homes, achievement and money above their creator and they rapidly become negative and dehumanising in their affect upon us. Place these things below God and, like all of his created order, they can become a rich source of the blessing he intends for us.

One of the dangers of a service like six30 @ ccnm is that it can easily become inward looking rather than focused upon how God wants us to serve him. During this series in January we will look at four very practical areas in which we can serve him by responding to the needs of Africans with HIV, our Mission Partners, ‘unchurched’ young people and our non-Christian friends.

One of the biggest themes of the Old Testament is the struggle which the people of Israel had with idolatry. Particularly once they entered the land of Canaan, the Israelites were constantly tempted to turn from God to worship of the things he created. During this series we will look at the different perspectives on idolatry offered by different parts of the Old Testament and see how much it has to say to a modern day culture in which idolatry is still our major problem.

During September and October at the six30 service we looked at the figure of the servant in Isaiah 40-55 and what this had to teach us about Israel, Jesus and the Church. During Advent we will stay in Isaiah and look at the promises contained in three of its most purple passages – chapters 9, 11 and 35 – and reflect on how these promises both have been and will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The run up to Christmas has become one of the most obvious symbols of our deeply consumerist culture. A central part of this culture is the desire for instant gratification and frustration at any sense of having to wait for things. Obvious examples of this include the endless day-time commercials and letters we receive offering us credit and the adverts a few years ago promoting a certain credit card as being able to ‘take the waiting out of wanting’. Much of the cause of the financial crisis we are now enduring is fairly obviously tied up with these attitudes.

Part of the value of Advent is the way in which it challenges these attitudes by reflecting the Bible’s emphasis on the importance of waiting for the blessings that God has promised us. During Advent we will think in turn about the key figures traditionally remembered by the church during this season – Abraham and Sarah, the Prophets, John the Baptist and Mary. In each case these people were made promises by God that they then had to wait to see fulfilled. The aim of this series is to give us a deeper understanding of the God-given value of waiting and the liberation this can bring us to make the most of our present situations as we wait for what God has promised us.

The run up to Christmas has become one of the most obvious symbols of our deeply consumerist culture. A central part of this culture is the desire for instant gratification and frustration at any sense of having to wait for things. Obvious examples of this include the endless day-time commercials and letters we receive offering us credit and the adverts a few years ago promoting a certain credit card as being able to ‘take the waiting out of wanting’. Much of the cause of the financial crisis we are now enduring is fairly obviously tied up with these attitudes.

Part of the value of Advent is the way in which it challenges these attitudes by reflecting the Bible’s emphasis on the importance of waiting for the blessings that God has promised us. During Advent we will think in turn about the key figures traditionally remembered by the church during this season – Abraham and Sarah, the Prophets, John the Baptist and Mary. In each case these people were made promises by God that they then had to wait to see fulfilled. The aim of this series is to give us a deeper understanding of the God-given value of waiting and the liberation this can bring us to make the most of our present situations as we wait for what God has promised us.

One of the easiest things for Christians to do is to keep our faith rather separate from the world in which we live. During this short pre-Advent series across our three main services we will try to do the opposite, seeking to connect the Christian faith to a number of the things that surround us. ‘Remembrance Sunday’ falls within these series but also included within it will be ‘a Christian take’ on ‘Firework Night’, ‘The Summer Riots’ and ‘Websites the encourage Unfaithfulness’. In all of these very different areas, the Bible has a great deal to teach us as we reflect upon what our response should be to these different aspects of our culture.

One of the easiest things for Christians to do is to keep our faith rather separate from the world in which we live. During this short pre-Advent series across our three main services we will try to do the opposite, seeking to connect the Christian faith to a number of the things that surround us. ‘Remembrance Sunday’ falls within these series but also included within it will be ‘a Christian take’ on ‘Firework Night’, ‘The Summer Riots’ and ‘Websites the encourage Unfaithfulness’. In all of these very different areas, the Bible has a great deal to teach us as we reflect upon what our response should be to these different aspects of our culture.

One of the easiest things for Christians to do is to keep our faith rather separate from the world in which we live. During this short pre-Advent series across our three main services we will try to do the opposite, seeking to connect the Christian faith to a number of the things that surround us. ‘Remembrance Sunday’ falls within these series but also included within it will be ‘a Christian take’ on ‘Firework Night’, ‘The Summer Riots’ and ‘Websites the encourage Unfaithfulness’. In all of these very different areas, the Bible has a great deal to teach us as we reflect upon what our response should be to these different aspects of our culture.

The New Testament is full of practical teaching about how Christians should live once they decide to follow Jesus. During this series we will look at the short letter that Paul wrote to his co-worker Titus as he led a church that had been planted on the island of Crete. In this letter, Paul summons Titus and the Cretan church to be shaped and renewed by the new world that has been brought by Jesus Christ with its details having important implications for our leadership, relationships and lives at Christ Church.

There are some questions that we can try to avoid asking because their answers are ones that will challenge us and potentially change the way we live. Sometimes these questions relate to the wider world in which we live and sometimes they are ones more focused upon our personal lives. During this series we will look at a number of such questions, reflect upon their possible answers in the light of the Bible’s teaching and think about how the ways in which we live might need to change as a result.

Isaiah 40-55 is one of the most important sections of the Old Testament as the prophet speaks of the means by which Israel’s exile will finally come to an end. Central to these chapters of the mysterious figure of ‘the Servant’ and the crucial role that it plays in this process. At points the Servant appears to be Israel itself and at other points the prophet. As the prophecy reaches its climax, however, it is clearly also a special individual who will come to suffer as he bears the sins of Israel so that she can be set free. During this series we will look at the different pictures of the servant within Isaiah 40-55 and then reflect upon its implications for understanding Jesus better and also the church’s role as ‘Servant’.

For many Christians the book of Revelation is the hardest book in the New Testament chiefly because of its strange, lurid and sometimes violent imagery. As a result many Christians who are quite at home in the Gospels, Acts and Paul are much less sure of themselves when it comes to Revelation. But Revelation is a very important book offering a clear vision of God’s ultimate purpose for the whole creation and the way in which the powerful forces of evil, particularly at work in tyrannous political systems, can be and are being overthrown through the victory of Jesus and the resulting victory of his followers. The world in which we live is no less complex and dangerous than that of the first century and so engaging with the visions in Revelation can make a major difference to our attempt to be faithful witnesses to God’s love within it.

The original series was entitled The Challenge of Revelation, running during September and October 2011 and covering the first seven chapters of the Book of Revelation.

Returning in 2012 under the new title The Book of Revelation, during January and February, chapters 8 to 14 were covered.  Across our morning services during these months we looked at idolatry and unpacking its nature and subtleties. Revelation is concerned with much the same theme as its writer exposes the pagan culture surrounding the churches it is written to. Containing many mysteries, Revelation still possesses a great deal that can help us through its realism about the nature of evil combined with its confidence about Christ’s victory over this.

The final chapters were then covered suring May and June, when we considered the sustained focus of the Book of Revelation upon why so much evil still exists in the world if God really has won the victory over it through the death of Jesus. This is one of the most perplexing issues that many Christians face, particularly as we get older. Why does the world seem to be getting worse rather than better? Why does God seem to be allowing evil to have such power? Revelation deals with these questions head on and its pastoral power lies in the way that it shows how the suffering that Christians are called to endure is all part of the implementing the victory of Christ.

During this year we have had lots of sermons at Christ Church seeking to help us improve our knowledge and understanding of the Bible. The whole aim of this project has been to equip us to understand and follow God more faithfully. In this series, which is a variation on the testimony talks that we had at six30 @ ccnm over the last few years, each of the speakers will select a particular section of the Bible that has helped them and explain some of the reasons why it made such a difference. Hopefully it will form another means of encouraging us to read the Bible more regularly so that it can bring more help to both our lives and that of Christ Church.

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.