Frank's report 7th March 2011

We used John Simmonds PCN study booklet “ Walk the Jesus walk” last Saturday. Mavis introduced the first chapter “My story, my journey” which suggests many ways in which the faith we have –( or indeed the faith we don’t have ?) depends greatly on the experiences we have had in life. The classic example of this is the man who finds it almost impossible to believe in God as a loving father because he had suffered so much abuse from his own father. Some studies such as those developed in the Clinical Theology movement have suggested that even our birth experiences may have profound effect on our ability to believe in God. Mavis will also lead our next session “Finding out more about Jesus” which looks at the sources of our knowledge of Jesus. ( I have books for you – price £3) It would be good to share the leading of these chapters amongst us. Any volunteers ?? John Simmonds book(s) may help to form a liberal equivalent to the conservative Alpha Courses but if so we shall need clear presentations of how we understand those areas dear to conservative theology - atonement justification eternal life etc. We also looked at the BTX (Big Tent Christianity) meeting in Phoenix, between members of the “Emerging Church” and TCPC (the USA PCN>) as reported on the TCPC website. The ‘emerging church’ seems to be composed of a younger generation of people of out of conservative evangelical churches who are bored/ dissatisfied with the life of their own denominational churches, and who are concerned to discover “what it means for me to be a follower of Jesus now” Look up the website for yourself and read the article by Fred Plumer. An encouraging story. Our next meeting is APRIL 2nd Wendy and I hope that our house will be in process of renovation by then ! Frank G.

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