Capacity - Releasing and Empowering - Ephesians 4:1 - 16

God with us! Jesus physically ministered - touching the leper, healing the sick, declaring the Kingdom, forgiving and releasing people, drawing them together and calling them to follow Him. His ministry led him to the cross, but death could not hold him - he rose again and was alive, victorious. Yet then came that moment where he would no longer be physically present, he would take his right and proper place in the seat of God.

With that moment came a question: How would the Kingdom ministry that was still needed in so many people continue if Jesus was no longer physically present?

[IN] What has Jesus put in you to benefit the whole body?

Challenge: Ask friends for feedback in terms of A-P-E-S-T

Capacity - Corporate - 1 Corinthians 14:22 - 25

This week we are homing in on a snippet of Paul's writing that it is actually part of a much longer thought process (from chapter 12), about the work of the Spirit among the people. A key thing he re-iterates is the Spirit working among the whole people for the whole people. In chapter 14 there is a focus on the church gathered, and therefore the Spirit working among us in our meetings.

Capacity - Individual: Acts 18

God has come to us! That is what Christmas was all about. With His coming in Jesus also comes His Kingdom, and Jesus straight away started announcing that. His Kingdom coming changes things - as it brushes against people those lives change. As a church we want to see Kingdom life across the city - we want to see the changes that it brings! For that we are a church in mission in this city - walking with Jesus together applying ourselves to the Kingdom task.

[UP] Where is God leading you to go deeper with Him?

Challenge: Make one clear positive adjustment as you start 2018

Patient & Fathful - James 5

We have spent this year thinking about 'His Story - Our Story', seeing how God has been at work all through history. More recently we have considered how we learn along the journey. It is a journey that by God's providence has a trajectory. With God things are not random but has an intended destination, which includes peace and wholeness - the Biblical concept of Shalom. On the journey there are big God-intervention moments, such as the exodus, and of course later the cross, itself enabled by God sending his Son to live as a human. Yet the journey is one for the long haul, and not just a series of fleeting moments.

Faith & Deeds in Freedom - James 2

Imagine two scenarios. One of a man declaring he is to be married, but you quickly work out that he has no plans to spend any meaningful time with his fiance or consider her needs. Naturally you doubt the substance of the marriage. Second of a lad who is into lad things ... until one day he meets a girl. Strangely from that day he is into things that she is into, things he would never have previously gone near. Of course you conclude he has fallen in love!

[UP] Where does your faith and your actions not match up?

Challenge: Ever closer to Jesus

Pure Joy - James 1

James starts his letter with one of the most illogical verses in the Bible: "Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds". You what? When things are going wrong we surely have the right to be grumpy, to complain, to ask 'where is God?', and question everything.

A People in Glory - Exodus 40:34 - 38

This part of our series draws to an end as we skip to the end of the book of Exodus. It is not the end of the story, however, but just one episode in His Story, one in which the Israelites find they have a place, just as we find we have a place.