Christian living

Where is God leading Christ Church? How can we serve more effectively in our parish and in the wider world? In October 2011 we spent part of a Sunday thinking and praying about these issues. Longtime members, newcomers, old and young joined together to help set our priorities for the future.

Young and old contributed their ideas

Most members of Christ Church took part in a residential weekend in Shropshire in September 2011. There's a full report on this page.

The weekend was led by Rob Bewley, formerly Associate Vicar of St John's Church, Harborne

A quiet place for prayer and reflection

Some people find candles and other physical objects helpful

Some years ago one of our members found himself in conversation with a young woman who had been exposed to some widely-held beliefs: that the material world does not matter, and that rational thought is "unspiritual". Down the centuries much Christian thinking has been influenced - even infected - by these ideas, but they are not Christian at all, deriving instead from Greek philosphy.

Peter had recently studied a book countering these ideas, and recalls that this woman cried when she realised that the teaching that had led her away from faith was in fact false. After much further study, Peter has launched a website called With All Your Mind whose aim is to help and encourage us to think about our faith. It contains links to online articles and audio exploring a wide range of topics from a Christian perspective.

For one day in March 2011 our smaller hall was transformed into a place to contemplate the deeper things of life. Participants followed the maze-like path with time to listen, watch and reflect at a series of points along the symbolic journey.

Creative media helped each of us to reflect on relationships with ourselves, God and others

At our Annual Meeting in April 2011, members were invited to write down something that they particularly wanted to thank God for in connection with Christ Church. Among a wide range of topics, the most mentioned categories were:

• Friendship and support within the church
• Our young people
• More people being welcomed into the church

Giving thanks

It started when a group of young people from Christ Church went to Soul Survivor in the summer of 2010. Many of them took on the challenge of reading the whole Bible in a year - and found it really worthwhile.

Early in 2011, the challenge was extended to the whole church, and 60 adults committed themselves to reading the whole Bible or specific sections of it within a year.

There are plenty of resources to help read, understand and even listen to the Bible, and we've provided some links on our Bible reading page.

The Bible: provoking thought, debate and action