Did you know that:
- 44% of practising Christians credit their friends for introducing them to Jesus
- 67% of non-Christians in England know a practising Christian and that person is most likely to be a friend or family member
- 54% of non-Christians who know a Christian have not had a conversation with this person about faith in Jesus
These are just some of the findings of a survey carried out in this country and published in the Talking Jesus Report in 2022.
Over the coming months we are going to be looking at how we can all be encouraged and equipped to talk about Jesus more with our friends and family. One of the best ways of doing this is through stories: telling God’s story and how knowing him has made a difference to our story.
Did you know that when we hear a story our brains release chemicals that trigger our ability to connect, empathise and make meaning? We all love stories and they help us to understand who we are, where we belong and how we relate to the world around us. So we are going to be thinking about stories and how we might share the stories of God and following Jesus with the people we know.
We will do this by:
Two Sunday sermon series:
Called to Tell begins this Sunday and will look at how we are all called by Jesus to tell others about who God is and what he means to us.
The Greatest Story Ever Told will take us through Lent, to Easter and beyond and help us think about the story of God, his restoration plan for his broken world and the difference following him makes to our stories.
The Talking Jesus Course which will run on Sunday evenings and a week night in Lent. Click here to find out more.
A Lent Book with lots of opportunities to talk about it with others. We will be reading Living His Story: revealing the extraordinary love of God in ordinary ways by Hannah Steel. Do get hold of your copy so you are ready to read along (Lent begins on 22nd February). Let the office know if you need help getting a copy. Click here to find out more.
If you would like to know more, please contact Rebecca.
Comments(2)
Richard Lynn says
February 2, 2023 at 12:41 pmOn a slightly different topic, I have for a long time been concerned at the lack of quality Christian literature in the field of general fiction for adults.
If you except C.S. Lewis (now rather dated), G..W. Target (now rarely remembered), Jenkins and La Haye (“Left Behind”) and William P. Young (“The Shack”), this field is pretty empty.
Yet there are enormous opportunies for influencing readers all over the world through general fiction with a Christian theme or subtext.
Jesus didn’t hesitate to use fictional stories to illustrate his teaching, and there are grounds for supposing that some of the Old Testament stories are fiction, if possibly fact-based. This doesn’t disqualify them from teaching us a lot about the nature of God.
I’m trying to make a small contribution of my own to the store of Christian fiction, and I would encourage any Christian whon enjoys te3lling stories to do likewise!
Pam Davis says
February 27, 2023 at 4:41 pm“Joshua” by Joseph F Girzone is a great, easily readable, book of fiction. The sequels are slightly dubious, but still OK.
Another book series I’ve found has a decidedly Christian ethos is David Eddings “ Belgarion” series, the first being “Pawn of Prophecy” which taught me a great deal about prophecy.
Also I believe Steve Moyise has done a study on Christianity in literature and film which you might find interesting.
And there are my husband, Nick’s, monologues, which I’m in the process of having published.
Best wishes, Pam