As part of our Church Mission and Discipleship framework, “Gardens, Dining Rooms and Kitchens“, we offer courses for individuals to grow. In our framework Gardens are about settings suitable for Guests, Dining Rooms for building Friendships and the Kitchen is the place for the Family. As we resolve dates for each course we’ll show them against each below. They will normally be at 7.30pm in our Upper Hall on the Church site accessible off Beaumont Road.
And so it is in the Kitchen where we grow into the family likeness of Jesus. Here we refer to the Sink where we discover our Ministry and the Oven where things in the Kitchen get finished off and where we discover our place in Mission before passing out the back door into the garden and mixing with guests. Therefore we offer courses to help you in these areas of growing as a disciple of Christ to help fulfil our church aim of being a C4 Church. A church that wants to be about: Christ and our Committment to grow in him and his Commandments and Commission.
One regular courses will be
Welcome to St Judes – Next on Tuesday 1 May (Changed from 17 April) and 16 October 2012
An evening with refreshments led by our Vicar, Tim Smith, where he will give you a tour of the church’s ethos and offer an opportunity to ask any questions at all.
Then we have some further more specific courses we would encourage you to attend over a year or two. In general our small groups don’t meet on Tuesdays so you can easily still be a part of a group and just join one of the following for a short season every now and then:
Basic Christianity: Alpha (Next begins on – Tuesday 15 January 2013)
Alpha is a Christian basics course where you can explore the meaning of life over 9 evenings.
Basic Discipleship: 40 Days Of Purpose (Next begins on – Tuesday 6 November 2012)
What are we here for? What is our purpose in life? What would it look like to live a balanced life as a Christian? A great course over 6 evenings that has been transformational for many in their approach to life. Highly recommended.
The Sink: Discovering Your Ministry (Next begins Spring 2013)
What S.H.A.P.E. has God given you? None of us want to be square pegs in round holes. Its the same when it comes to discovering the ministry that best suits you. This isn’t about finding you a job in the church, but to help you consider what role God may have got you readys for as we explore together Sprititual gifts, Heart passions, Abilities, Personalities and Experiences of life. Over 5 evenings you can begin to see a way forward into a fulfilling ministry because you’ll the have the tools to find what will best suit you either in our outside the church.
The Oven: Just Walk Across The Room (Next begins early Summer 2013)
Mission is so much easier when we partner with God. that means making friends and listening for his prompting. This course helps take the pressure off evangelism and maintains mission throughout all our lives and friendships. Only 4 evenings to discover that evangelism isn’t scary and you don’t need to knock on any strangers doors or stand on the street trying to convince people about Jesus with a flip chart. Just make real friends and listen to God’s promps! A liberating few weeks that removes any guilt about fulfilling your part in the great commission to go and make disciples.
Sometimes it is just not possible to get to a course run in a local church. It might be you need a daytime one and for the moment there isn’t one near or maybe you can only get out on a Wednesday and everyone is offering different evenings. Maybe you need a Saturday and can’t find a course running then. Well there is an option. (By the way, incase you can make it – our next one is on Sunday evenings – have a look here.)
The nature of the Alpha Course means it works at its best in a group – you can swap ideas, ask questions and most importantly – explore. The reason the Alpha Course helps people is because you can explore – bash your ideas around with others having had some input beforehand to help resource the conversation.
So it isn’t about ‘doing a course’. But if it is really impossible for you to get together with others then there is an interim option.
When Alpha was being offered for university students, it became apparent the original ten week course and an optional weekend away wouldn’t fit into a University term. So the material was squeezed into 7 weeks with a day away. The content is the same and they have put it all online.
If you want to watch the course, here is the link from the launch party where you get an opportunity to see if the course might suit, then the 7 weeks of the course and the day away material on the Holy Spirit. But a recommendation – watch them in order as each builds on the other.
And if you can – do join a course with others as the experience in a group just cannot be matched at home.
We really do pray that if you find you need to explore in this way initially that you will be blessed as you watch the videos and that you find the way, truth – and life.
YOU CAN ON THE ALPHA COURSE. OUR NEXT PLANNED COURSE BEGINS ON TUESDAY THE 15TH JANUARY 2013.
We want to give you an opportunity to explore what is probably the most important thing – life. You can’t easily do it with friends in the pub, or with collegues at work or family at home. They often think your questions aren’t serious.
But we offer The Alpha Course to help you do that, where no question is too simple or wierd. And we’re using a newer, shorter, punchier version from Alpha UK that’s been squeezed into 9 evenings. (It also avoids the need for a day away for the traditional course which was 13 weeks plus the extra day away) The talks are now just about 30 minutes. This picture is a still from the new DVD talks though we sometimes use live speakers.
Each time we meet we have some refreshments together – maybe a cake and a drink – have the talk to give us something to refect on, then chat. You can chat about anything and explore with everyone else. Its a cool time when no area is out of bounds because we all want to find what’s important – meaning.
If you want to get a feel for the material or really can’t make a course, have a look here.
If you want to come drop us a note here, we’ll get back to you with details.
We promise not to chase you, if you want to come along and try and don’t like it, that’s fine. We also promise to keep it relaxed and that we’ll give you space to explore the meaning of life for yourself.
Sunday evenings at St Judes are from 6.30pm each week in our Upper Hall that faces onto Beaumont Road behind the Church…
Reflections
REFLECTIONS
These evenings are an opportunity to reflect on a passage of scripture that might not have been that obvious or needs deeper study and it will be in a context of sung worship and prayer.
We also have various resources available each week to help us explore more and a downloadable data sheet on the particular book of the Bible we will be in will be available from here (or a printed version in Church the Sunday beforehand) so you can pre-read and prepare a bit. See below for the downloads against each week.
Hopefully, we can learn from each other in how we approach and interpret what we read. You can gain confidence in reading your Bible as we try to allow the Bible to speak to us more and more of God’s love and character.
And, is there a passage you would like us to look at? Let us know on one of the evenings and we’ll try and slot it in. We want to use different books of the Bible each time as you will also be able to build up a free resource of backgrounds to each book of the Bible.
(Click on the reading below to download the background to the book the reading is taken from. They are all in pdf text versions to keep files smaller – if you need to download a pdf reader for free, click here)
PROGRAMME
No Evening Services over Easter Holidays 8 Apr and 15 Apr
We hope we have everything you may be wanting to find linked from this page or above – please do explore!
We also love to showcase good videos ( there are several in different parts of this site) and this next one gives a great insight into humanity’s problem and the cost of the solution to our broken relationship with God.
At our Sunday morning services we offer worship suitable for all with Kids Church most weeks too (except some of the main school holidays and a monthly All Age service normally on 2nd Sundays of the month). Kids Church is at the same time as the adult gathering, a different group for the toddlers called Starfish and a creche in the church for the youngest members of the community.
Our Sunday evenings are at 6.30pm in our Upper Hall – see here for more!
We’re also going through lots of changes – buildings and services, small groups and kids. It isn’t just blind busyness, but we are following a firm strategy based on outreach and discipleship – C4. And all this pressure this year is reflected in our chosen verse for the year – check it out here.
We have great childrens’ times across the week – not just Sundays – see whats on offer here. Families can find space, Youth can gather in different ways, folk who want to grow more in their relationship with Jesus often meet up Sunday evenings and our older community are encouraged, especially at our Midweeker. A new after school drop in is up and running too, do check out our Roots Cafe
Parking is easy in our own car park and nearby streets. We hope to keep up lots of social activities. All folk of any age or background can find friendship here. Together we try to follow Jesus, welcome the Holy Spirit and bring glory to the Father.
We encourage members of the community to support ministries in the city, not just in the church. And it isn’t uncommon for individuals and families to feel a call further afield and we have several of our church family in overseas ministries and missions.
If you want to know more about giving at St Jude’s, have a look here.
And so it is in the Kitchen where we grow into the family likeness of Jesus. Here we refer to the Sink where we discover our Ministry and the Oven where things in the Kitchen get finished off and where we discover our place in Mission before passing out the back door into the garden and mixing with guests. Therefore we offer courses to help you in these areas of growing as a disciple of Christ to help fulfil our church aim of being a C4 Church. A church that wants to be about: Christ and our Committment to grow in him and his Commandments and Commission.
Basic Christianity: Alpha (Next begins on – Tuesday 15 January 2013)
Basic Discipleship: 40 Days Of Purpose (Next begins on – Tuesday 6 November 2012)
The Oven: Just Walk Across The Room (Next begins early Summer 2013)
