Our aim is that every attendee of the church is part of a small group that meets together to pray, discuss the bible.
Why?
Being a Christian isn’t easy. We know that there is always more to learn that every day we have choices to make, and it is difficult to live a Christian life, growing in faith if you are not sharing your life with other Christians in the church.
So if you are not in a small group, please click here for application form (36kb Word .doc – opens in new window)
Small Group Meetings in 2012
(Please note that the dates and times of some groups are flexible, please check with your group leader.)
THE “I AM” SAYINGS OF JESUS
In John’s gospel Jesus makes seven statements about himself which start with “I am”.
Seven metaphores to tickle our minds, grab our attention and make us think. “Metaphors
are used to help us understand the unknown, because we use what we know in
comparison with something we don’t know to get a better understanding of the unknown.”1
In each of these sayings Jesus is revealing something about himself so that we can
understand who he is and how we relate to him. He takes what we know, bread, light, a
door, a shepherd, life, a road, a vine and says of each one, “that’s what I am. Think about
it, meditate on it and you will start to know who I am.”
Our studies from January to June will, hopefully, allow us the space and time to meditate
on, chew over, these sayings of Jesus together. This series links in with the preaching on
John’s gospel in our Sunday morning services, giving us more time to engage with these
specific revelations of Jesus. We will start in Exodus to set the context of what Jesus was
saying and finish in Revelation with Jesus’s final “I am” statement. As we study these
passages, we need to be aware that when Jesus was teaching he “wasn’t so much
handing out information as reshaping our imaginations with metaphors so that we could
take in the living multi-dimensional truth that is Jesus.”2
1 http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/metaphor.htm l
2 Eugene H Peterson, 2008, The Word Made Flesh, p 12, Hodder
Month | Week Begining | Title | Passage |
|---|---|---|---|
January | 9th | What is his Name? What is His Name Study | Exodus 3:1-17 Bible Passage |
23th | Bread of Life The Bread of Life Study | John 6:25-59 Bible Passage |
|
February | 6th | Light of the World Light of the World Study | John 8:12-30, 9:1-6 Bible Passage |
20th | The Door The Door Study | John 10:1-10 Bible Passage |
|
March | 5th | The Good Shepherd The Good Shepherd Study | John 10:11-21 Bible Passage |
19th | Pray for the Bigger Picture | ||
April | 9th | For Small Group use | |
23rd | The Resurrection | John 11:1-44 | |
May | 7th | The Way, the Truth, | John 14:1-11 |
21st | The True Vine | John 15:1-16 |
|
June | 11th | Alpha and Omega | Rev 22:12-16 |
25th | For Small Group use |