ak theme

spring 2008

this term we are looking at sunday school stories - noah, joseph, adam and eve, daniel, david and goliath and many more.

previous terms

autumn 2007 - winter 2008

this term we are again using thealpha material which looks at the core elements of Christianity and what they meant to us, from "who is Jesus?" and "why and how do i pray?" to "what does the Holy Spirit do?", "does God heal today" and "how can i make the most of the rest of my life?".

winter 2007 - summer 2007

this term we are looking at the the 3 letters written by john to the early church. full of reassurance, advice and teaching about the Christian faith, these letters have a lot to say to us today about faith, truth and love, challenging us to think about what we believe and why.

autumn 2006

this term we looked at the gospel according to john, an eyewitness account of the life and work of Jesus. we'll saw what it could tell us about the life of Jesus and what that means for us today.

spring 2006 - summer 2006

this term we looked at God in ordinary places. where is God in everyday life? what does it mean to be a Christian at school, at home or on holiday?

winter 2006 - spring 2006

this term we looked at the book of james in the bible. james is believed to have been one of Jesus' brothers and was a leader in the early church in jerusalem. james wrote this letter in around ad49 to expose hypocritical practices in the church and to teach right Christian behaviour. james focusses on the need for your Christian faith to be expressed through our actions and not just be hot air. "what's the use of saying you have faith if you don't prove it by your actions? that kind of faith can't save anyone!" (james 2:14). energetic, crisp and simple, james's letter could be considered a "how-to" book on Christian living and, despite its short length, contains much which is thought-provoking and challenging.

autumn 2005

this term we looked at the whole bible! instead of studying a particular section we looked at how the whole bible fits together, as well as some of the megathemes and metanarratives running through it. and we didn't use stupidly long words like those ones! we found that God has a plan for us which runs through the whole of history, that we each have a part to play in that plan and that we need to find out what that part is.

spring 2005

the groups looked at the book of daniel. found towards the end of the old testament (between half and two thirds of the way through most bibles), the story of daniel contains some of the more famous biblical stories - daniel in the lions den, shadrach, meshach and abednego in the fiery furnace and the writing on the wall. part of the book looks at the life story of daniel, a story filled with obedience, loyalty, faithfulness, perseverance, courage and faith. the stories helped us explore the idea that God is in control, that we all have a purpose in life and that God never gives up on us. the other part of the book is made up of a series of pictures of the future that daniel had and we explored what they say about the world we live in today.

autumn 2004 - winter 2005

both the groups used thealpha material which looks at the core elements of Christianity and what they meant to us, from "who is Jesus?" and "why and how do i pray?" to "what does the Holy Spirit do?", "does God heal today" and "how can i make the most of the rest of my life?".

autumn 2003 - spring 2004

the "deeper" group looked mark's gospel, filled with fast moving action packed newsflashes from Jesus' life, whilst the "basics" group looked at the parables, or stories, that Jesus told.

winter 2003 - spring 2003

we took a look at the book of 1 peter, which can be found towards the back of the bible.

peter was a follower of Jesus (the one who walked on water as well as later denying he knew Jesus 3 times before the cock crowed) who's name had originally been simon. Jesus however named him peter, meaning "rock", as he became the rock which the church was founded on. this didn't make him very popular with the roman empire, who weren't too keen upon Christians and peter spent a lot of time in prison. finally he was sentenced to death and crucified - although he demanded to be crucified upside down as he did not feel worthy to die in the same way as Christ.

before he died he managed to write some letters from his prison cell to some of the new Christian churches - 1 peter is one of these. despite being written nearly 2000 year ago, its themes of eternal life, suffering and God's power, as well as its practical advice on living as a Christian make it as relevant to us now as when it was written.

autumn 2002

"the one with" series, looking at the basics of Christianity:

the one with the Son (Jesus)
the one with the amazing plan (God's plan)
the one with the big problem (sin, evil)
the one with the book of books (the bible)
the one with the conversation (prayer)
the one with the ghosts and spirits (the Holy Spirit)
the one without the organ (worship)
the one with the insult (Christianity)
The one with the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll (lifestyle)
the one with the family (church)