We held another preaching series from 29th January to 19th February. All preachers leading worship during that time were encouraged to focus on "The Kingdom of God" and to explore what the kingdom is all about and what it might mean for us today. We used the hymn "The kingdom of God" (H&P 139) as a focus for the four weeks, with the intention that we focussed on a verse each time. This thus gave the theme for each week as :

• 29th January - "Justice and Joy"
• 5th February - "Mercy and Grace"
• 12th February - "Challenge and Choice"
• 19th February - "The Gift and the Goal"

Some resources for the individual weeks were provided and will remain here until the end of August in case others may find them helpful, too. 

Jonathan

Some thoughts on how to use the hymn

Singing the hymn in full every week may become a little tedious after a while, so here are just a few suggestions of how the material may be introduced.

1. Sing the verse of the week as an introit or call to worship.
2. Read the verse, either with one voice or collectively.
3. Include the verse in the printed notice sheet and refer to it that way.
4. Sing the hymn to an alternative tune.

LATEST ADDITION - 14th February, 2012

With this Sunday being the last in the series, it might be an opportunity to sum up the thoughts from the previous weeks in some way. Sue Barratt has put together a Powerpoint presentation which others may find useful. When she sent it to me, she was still adapting it for her own use at Wesley Memorial and playing around with the images and the timings, so it comes to you very much in draft form, so please feel free to modify it and use it in whatever way may be most suitable for you.

Powerpoint: Images of the kingdom

A contribution from Paul Spray

My son Alan recently gave me and Wendy the DVD of the film Benda Bilili. It is a documentary about a (music) band of homeless, disabled people who lived on the streets of Kinshasa. A visiting French film-maker met them in 2006 and they end up the highlight of World Music festivals in Europe. There is a two minute trailer of the film here.

I thought I might use the trailer at CREW to describe something of the character of the kingdom being among us, and specifically among the poor. Plenty of joy about it, and justice, in a way, in the eventual recognition of this little group. It has to be used with care. I don't want to suggest that all poor people are lifted out of poverty by their music, and certainly not to portray the French visitor as like God doing the lifting. But, whether you use it or not, it is a most enjoyable and inspiring tale!