Key Bible Passage(s):

Gen.1:1-3; Ex.33:11 & 20; Is.42:1-4; Matt.28:18-20

Tier 1:

Christians are not monotheists; we believe in a God who is Trinity, who has community and relationship built into the very structure of His Being. We see this powerful and dynamic vision of God throughout the whole Bible. It is who God has always been, who He is, and who He will always be… and it gives structure to all of Christian belief, life and worship.

Tier 2:

We tend to assume that if someone believes in ‘god’, that must be a good thing. In fact, it can be an incredibly dangerous and damaging thing to beleive in ‘god’, if that ‘god’ is not the Living God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the Bible, believing in any other god is called idolatry, and has disastrous consequences.

Tier 3:

To be human is to have been created in the Image of this God. We are designed to be in deep relationship with others. Sin always results in the disintegrating of relationship. Redemption always builds us into relationship with other Christians. To worship the God who is Trinity is to lay the foundation for our vision of Church life.

I cannot think on the One without quickly becoming encircled by the splendour of the Three; nor can I discern the Three without straightaway being carried back to the One.

Gregory of Nazianzus

Group Exercise:

What would you say to someone who said they believed in God, but not in Jesus, or in Christianity?

...or that it doesn’t really matter what you believe about God?

How important is it to believe that God is Trinity?

What would we lose as Christians if we stopped believing in the Trinity?

Have you ever realised that God in the Old Testament is so explicitly Trinitarian?

Short discussion with person next to you:

What is the problem with teaching children to pray: ‘Dear God … Amen’?

How should we teach them to pray instead?

and later in the session:

Read Phil.2:1-16; Eph.4:1-6; Titus 3:10-11

What are these passages teaching us about the life of the Church?

If I believe this, who will I be, how will I live..?

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What steps are you going to take to cultivate fellowship / relationships in the Church?

Be as specific as you can…  and note them down - in a month, we’ll be asking how we got on…

Where do you need to be more honest in building relationship?

What are the most serious threats to the unity of our Church?  How can we protect ourselves in these areas?

Homework:

Continue to memorise the Apostles’ Creed

Over the next half-term we’ll be working to memorise Matthew 5:1-10

(we’ll memorise the whole of the Sermon on the Mount over the next 3 years)

To Be a Christian, Q&A 36-37

Find someone who isn’t a Christian, but who believes in ‘god’.  Ask them: 

•What do they believe about that god?  

•How do they decide what to believe about that god?

•How does their belief in that god affect them?

during this half term:

Have someone over for coffee or a meal… talk about the DTP:

Why are you doing the DTP?

Where do you hope to be spiritually in 3 years time..?

What are you unsure / fearful / anxious about as we start the DTP?

And pray for each other