St Jude's Mapperley Archive Blog

Good morning! I wonder where you'd put Christianity in a Sunday newspaper. Would you put it with the headlines, or in the lifestyle section with the magazine? It might seem like a silly question, but actually it makes all the difference in the world, and Paul talks about it a lot in Galatians 3, which we looked at yesterday morning. You see when the Galatians started out, they would have put it clearly in the "news" section, but by the time Paul wrote them, they'd have moved to the "lifestyle" section, and Paul gives them two big reasons why it needs to be back in "news": First, Christianity begins with news . It begins with the great news of Jesus – God become man, crucified for us and raised from the dead. It begins in our lives with God himself coming to live in us by his Spirit, not because we follow the right lifestyle but because we hear the good news and respond by trusting it. And even though there's a...

One of the things I love about my job is the chance to sit down with folk and listen to them tell me about their walk with God. And they'll often say something like "I'm not a very good Christian..." Of course, on one level there may well be things to discuss or ways that I can help. On another level, it's brilliant that folk recognise that, because in this world there aren't super-duper Christians and awesome Christians and totally obedient Christians, there are just "not very good" Christians, and when we let him, God works through us anyway! I remember I used to have a big problem with this, and, being me, I'd talked it up into a big intellectual conundrum. "How can I promise to follow God," I would ask, "when I know that I will let him down and fail to keep my promises because I'm still sinful?" And for a year or so, I let that question paralyse me in my Christian life. The answer, when it ca...

Good morning! Yesterday was our Church Day of Prayer. Many thanks to all those who came along and prayed, or who stayed at home because of the ice and prayed there instead. This morning, I'd like to share with you one of the things we were praying and praising for on Saturday. In January 2014, I challenged us to pray for 5 new Christians at St Jude's in 2014; 5 people to step up into new leadership positions and for the church to grow by 5%. What actually happened? Two adults became Christians at St Jude's in 2014, but the picture is quite a bit more complex than that. Quite a few follk came back to church having been away or started attending church for the first time. Several children were also born into Christian families, and our policy is clear that we count children in Christian families as Christians (hence baptism, etc) unless they decide otherwise. 5 new Christians - target probably met . Around a dozen people stepped up into new positions of leadership or responsi...