Springfield Church

In the first session we considered how human beings' relationship with their universe, their understanding of what Reality is and how they relate to God, has not always been the same. We explored the transition from pre-Modern, to Modern and PostModern ways of understanding these relationships, which roughly show a transition from the human being understanding herself as a spiritual being deeply connected with a vast, enchanted reality surrounding her - and accessible through prayer and life's daily round - to a far more contemporary understanding of the individual as an isolated being at the centre of a disenchanted world.

Paul continues his letter writing to a church in one of the largest, richest and most multi-ethnic cities of the Roman Empire. It is a church with great gifts and talents and a church with many problems!We looked at the role of women in Greek and Roman society and how restrictive it was, especially in Greek society with women expected to be veiled and to stay at home. Greek thought believed that women were morally inferior and even in Roman society they were under a male protector who took all the major decisions. Into this restrictive scene explodes Christianity with Jesus and Paul focussing on the innate value of women (“no longer male and female; for you are all one in Christ”) and the role of women as deacons and even apostles (e.g. Ro 16:1,7). So, we looked at how Paul saw that sex within marriage was good. We saw that sexual intercourse is a key way that a couple expresses unity and mutuality. It requires a self giving of one to the other. In this Paul shows how radical he is by pointing out to both par

Paul continues his letter writing to a church in one of the largest, richest and most multi-ethnic cities of the Roman Empire. It is a church with great gifts and talents and a church with many problems!A study by the Barna group in the US a few years ago discovered that there had been a sea change in young people’s view of Christianity. Ten years earlier the vast majority were positive about Christianity. Now only 16% were! The three biggest charges against Christianity were judgemental (87%), hypocritical (85%) and old-fashioned (78%). Will asked the question on Sunday – How has it come to this? The most radical teacher the world has ever seen is now seen to be represented by people who are seen as judgemental, hypocritical and old-fashioned? The answer may start with passages such as the one in 1 Corinthians.To counter the charge made by those around us we need to re-capture the focus on beginning to be changed. We do this by beginning to walk in the Way of Jesus. This will involve our seeking to focus on

Paul continues his letter writing to a church in one of the largest, richest and most multi-ethnic cities of the Roman Empire. It is a church with great gifts and talents and a church with many problems!We, like the Corinthians, live in a society where sex dominates. It dominates our advertising and our TV and our papers and magazines. The Corinthians thought that they were superior to others and that they had already gained all that Jesus had to offer – that what they did wasn’t important as they were spiritually gifted and that was the most important thing.Paul hauls them up. Their focus was all wrong. We are called to be a holy people following a holy God. God’s grace and love is intended to create a people who will start to live and reflect His grace and holiness. It is not intended that we tick the box and then do whatever we like! Yet often we live as if what we do is ok and that sin isn’t real or important “because we are all sinners”. Paul would say – yes, we’re all sinners – but if live in ways that

We are continuing our series on 1 Corinthians looking at how the Corinthians saw themselves as not only superior to others, by not recognising how everything we have is a gift from God, but also believing that they had already received everything. Paul brings them back to earth by pointing out that we are called to follow the way of Jesus - and that we are called to imitate him, which involves living the way of the cross.

We all of us find it very easy to judge others; but that all too easily leads to people believing that they aren’t good enough. It makes us too afraid to step up and try – because we are afraid what others will think. It happens in school where pupils are afraid to be asking a “dumb” question. Or we won’t volunteer to join something “because others are so much better than me”.Paul wants to change the Corinthians way of seeing things. God isn’t so worried about “success” as faithfulness and trustworthiness. The world asks the questions “how good are you at…?” or “how productive are you..?” God asks a different question – are you faithful with what I have given to you?

What is the Church? And what, or who, is it for? Paul is writing to the Church in Corinth in reply to concerns communicated to him: he’s heard of factions and infighting; the Church is gifted, but immature and unspiritual, worldly. Paul loves this community, and he is really concerned about their continued sanctification – becoming holy - as Christians. The Jewish Temple had always been the locus of the divine presence: but now, the early Christians are realising, God’s dwelling place is in the Church. This means that the Church is holy – and God’s. So it is an extremely serious matter if the Church is at war with itself. It is both a betrayal of our calling as Christians, and an offence against God’s holy character. Being the Church is not just a social gathering for our own amusement: being the Church is building God’s Temple.

Paul explains how although he wasn’t an eloquent speaker, his preaching was accompanied by the work of the Spirit in changing lives. Now however the Corinthians are starting to feel they are better than others because they have many spiritual gifts and are depending on worldly wisdom derived from the diverse society in which they live rather than on the wisdom that comes from God. Paul reminds them of the need to put their faith in Jesus and in Him alone.

The second in our series looking at Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. We looked at how Paul recognises that to so many the Cross is foolishness to many and a stumbling block to religious types. But Paul saw how we keep trying to make God in our own image and that the Cross was an antidote to being in control.

The first in a series working our way through the whole of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. Paul is writing to a church in one of the largest cosmopolitan cities of the Roman empire. He is writing to a church that is gifted but flawed. A church that has been blessed by God but has lost its way and needs to discover how they should live as God's holy people.

Have you noticed how many people in the Bible have encounters with God that causes lives to be altered. Encounters that take people to places they never imagined that they would go. If we want to adventure into the very heart of God then we need to be prepared to venture out of where we are comfortable to the edges. This series looks at how God leads us to the edge and not only transforms us but those around us. This week we looked at Paul's description of Jesus in Philippians 2 and how we are to be unified in our desire to share the love of Jesus. We looked at the attitude of Jesus and we looked at areas where we could share the love of Jesus in our community and so help to restore creation.

Have you noticed how many people in the Bible have encounters with God that causes lives to be altered. Encounters that take people to places they never imagined that they would go. If we want to adventure into the very heart of God then we need to be prepared to venture out of where we are comfortable to the edges. This series looks at how God leads us to the edge and not only transforms us but those around us. This week we looked at how Paul helped to create the right foundations to transform a community. We saw that it wasn't a safe option and that Paul didn't hide his faith.

Have you noticed how many people in the Bible have encounters with God that causes lives to be altered. Encounters that take people to places they never imagined that they would go. If we want to adventure into the very heart of God then we need to be prepared to venture out of where we are comfortable to the edges. This series looks at how God leads us to the edge and not only transforms us but those around us. This week we looked at how Paul responded to the move of the Spirit and how it led him into a radical mission for the sake of the good news of Jesus

After the General Synod of the Church of England narrowly failed to ratify legislation that would allow the appointment of women as bishops to the Church of England, Will Cookson makes a statement to Springfield Church about his position on this.

Have you noticed how many people in the Bible have encounters with God that causes lives to be altered. Encounters that take people to places they never imagined that they would go. If we want to adventure into the very heart of God then we need to be prepared to venture out of where we are comfortable to the edges. This series looks at how God leads us to the edge and not only transforms us but those around us.This week we looked at how the early church learnt from Jesus in difficult circumstances and how the Spirit guided and led them

Have you noticed how many people in the Bible have encounters with God that causes lives to be altered. Encounters that take people to places they never imagined that they would go. If we want to adventure into the very heart of God then we need to be prepared to venture out of where we are comfortable to the edges. This series looks at how God leads us to the edge and not only transforms us but those around us.

The final part of our series on the Fruit of the Spirit looking at how we can take on the Family likeness

Part of our series on the Fruit of the Spirit. This week we looked at the fruit of Humility

Fruit of the Spirit: Series looking at how the Spirit develops our character and helps us take on the family likeness

Part of our series on the Fruit of the Spirit, looking at how we can grow into the Family Likeness.