The Jesus of popular piety is an attractive figure—forgiving, loving, compassionate, life-giving. But the Jesus of history we encounter in the Gospels is complicated and in many ways unfamiliar to us. It is this Jesus that we want to get to know in this series. One simple way to plot his career path is by telling three stories about a “son”: the Son sent to Israel, the Son of Man who suffered many things, and the Son of God who reigns. We begin with the story of the Son sent to the badly managed vineyard of Israel.

The church believes that Jesus is the answer to the world’s problems. That’s a big claim to make, and we will try to make good sense of it as we go through this series. But first, we need to ask: which Jesus are we talking about?

A lot of people would like to see the church grow through the work of the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, however, it is Spirit of prophecy that is the leading edge of the mission of the apostles, and there’s a reason for that. In times of disruption and disorientation, the church needs to know what story it is part of—where we have come from, where we are going. The Spirit of prophecy, poured out on the community of disciples on the day of Pentecost, plots a way through the crisis.

We are having to deal with fake news, false realities, conspiracy theories, and more, on an industrial scale. The Bible tells us that the creative Word and Wisdom of God “became flesh” in the person of Jesus and brought a new world into being. We are learning to flesh that new world out by speaking words of divine wisdom.

We’re a church. But we’re not taking that for granted. We are actively exploring how a church like Westbourne Grove can best serve the living God in the post-Christian West. This week we will ask whether “urban monasticism” can teach us anything about how to live out a shared life in the Spirit in a challenging secular environment.

We may think that we live in a very rational, scientific age, but even in the supposedly secular West a good number of people—and a growing number of young people—regard themselves as “spiritual”. What do we mean when we say that? What does the Bible have to say about life in the Spirit? Possibly not what you’re expecting.

Last week we talked about how the biblical story might frame the climate crisis—the effects of which we are experiencing in a heat wave this week. It's just one of many things that we may be feeling anxious about. So we must ask whether the biblical story gives us grounds to proclaim good news. What hope do we have in this age of anxieties?

We hosted a screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing film in church last Tuesday. It presents in stark terms the threats posed to humanity by climate change. We showed the film for a reason. Surely a global crisis of such magnitude must be of concern to the God who created the heavens and the earth? We look this week at how the Bible helps us to approach the topic.

It feels as though the world is in a state of constant flux. Many of the old assumptions we made about what it means to be human seem to be breaking down—being male and female, being family, raising children, being a nation, having meaningful work to do. We have taken control of our own destiny, but do we know where we are going? So it’s a good time to ask: What does the Bible tell us about what it means to be human?

Andrew Perriman, Westbourne Grove Church

It is claimed that people in the modernised world see on average 5,000 adverts every day. Some would say double that. Why is that happening? What sort of pressure—mental, emotional, economic—does it put us under? Is there a biblical perspective on the problem of rampant consumerism? Let’s see.

Andrew Perriman, Westbourne Grove Church