March/April issue highlights from Helen
Welcome to our March/April issue, which sees us through the journey of Lent and into the Easter season.
Our weekly material includes key passages from John’s Gospel as Jesus prepares to go to the cross, culminating in the Easter story. In Journey to the Cross, John Parr explores how we can understand Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection – central to our faith yet often a challenging concept in our contemporary world.
Our Lent prayer station activities continue. You can find them as part of Explore & respond each week or view the complete set. And we have new Bread & Wine prayers for Lent and Easter Sunday.
How we share the story of Jesus in a relevant and engaging way is an ongoing question in many of our churches. In Let me tell you a story, Gemma Gillard, founder of Truth Be Told, shares her experience with storytelling and drawing people into Biblical narratives. She highlights that Jesus didn’t just tell parables but taught us how to be great storytellers.
Evangelism is receiving fresh focus across many denominations and our new series, Reimagining Evangelism, draws on the experience of Christian leaders and organisations who are seeing people come to faith in new and diverse contexts. This issue features interviews with Julia Daintree and Chip Kendall, who are both seeing the power of God at work through choirs.
We also have a new Discovering God resource: Women in the Bible by Bekah Legg, CEO of Restored, a Christian charity speaking up about violence against women.
Regular readers may notice a slight change in our weekly material. In our Bible notes, Linking the readings draws out how the passages connect, potentially giving an insight into how the lectionary is organised. Alongside this, a fuller selection of Hymns & songs is now available online, with links to lyrics and videos to make them more accessible.
Wishing you and your congregations joy and jubilation this Eastertide.
Helen Bearn,
Worship Together Senior Editor
helen.bearn@rootsforchurches.com