What have we assumed about life and faith that we can helpfully change? The goal of this boxset series is to encourage us all to question more deeply what we have inherited or received as Christians. Then we can be ready for whatever God wants to do with us next!
How is your connection with God right now? In this talk, Claire Lynch looks at reasons why we feel our connection gets lost and God seems distant. Do we think that God might let us go? Did Father God leave Jesus when when he was dying on the cross? What difference would it make to us if God always maintained his connection and never became distant?
Why would God be bothered about climate change and its consequences for life and the planet? In this talk, Owen Lynch looks at what the Bible says about God’s relationship with our planet and the role given to humanity in creation. The Bible mentions “dominion” over the earth, but what does this mean? Does God encourage us to act like we own the planet and consume what we like, or are we given greater responsibility? And is taking this seriously part of what it means to worship God?
What happens when we doubt - is it the end of our faith? In this talk, Dan Green looks at one of Jesus’ followers who doubted and how they reconnected with the source of their faith and life. What can this mean for us when we struggle to reconcile simplistic ideas with the complexity of lives and relationships?
How much do we struggle to square simplistic Sunday school beliefs with our complex world? In this talk, Owen Lynch revisits some of the dramatic stories we tell our kids and puts them into context. What does God want us to know from the stories of creation, Adam and Eve and Noah’s Ark? And how can questioning our assumptions about these, while unsettling, lead to a deeper, healthier spirituality? (For more info, see “Genesis for Normal People” by Peter Enns and Jared Byas)
If we all see the world in our own unique, biased way, what about Jesus? Can we tell how he saw the world differently from us? In this talk, Owen Lynch looks at the ways Jesus looked at life, faith and religion differently from anyone else, in ways which shocked the establishment in his time - and might shock us now.
This is part of a series in which we are questioning our assumptions about God and faith and wondering how God might want to change our viewpoints.
After bad times, how can we bounce back with hope? In this talk, Owen Lynch looks at what the Bible says about God’s love being poured out into our hearts. Did we earn or deserve this? Is there anything we have to do to receive it? If not, and if we can count on God’s unconditional love, can that hope give us a basis for whatever comes next in life?
What happens when life makes it hard to believe in God? In this talk, Owen Lynch looks at crises of faith and identity which can arise in difficult times, perhaps because our faith expectations don’t match the reality of the world around us, or when the church seems to be offering easy answers which seem wrong, insensitive or even offensive to us. Have we undervalued questions, debates and doubts? What can we learn from Paul, whose personal crisis of faith and identity made him change when he met Jesus?
