Bethnal Green Mission Church

Qoholet's ancient wisdom echoes modern philosophy and our own human condition, that we long to see gain from our toil, reward for our labour, and profit from our varied experiences. What do we do when there is no gain from life under the sun? How do we manage our culture's pull towards striving and seizing? In this talk we explore some of the unhealthy consequences of our human desire for gain, an...

In this second talk on Ecclesiastes, we explore Qohelet's vexed angst against the uncontrollable nature of life. If life is absurd vapour, 'a chasing after the wind', how do we cope as humans and Christians? In our innate reflex to control, strive and seize, where is our comfort when we realise, like Qohelet, that what we work for, pray for, and pay for cannot be guaranteed, cannot be bottled for...

Today we start a deep dive into the book of Ecclesiastes in our 'What We Missed In..' series. Ecclesiastes is a unique voice in Scripture, perhaps the nearest the bible gets to a piece of philosophy. But as ancient wisdom, it still speaks powerfully to our own modern dilemmas - 'how can we live well', 'does life have meaning', 'is there benefit or gain from our work', 'what is the good life'? The...

We're continuing our series 'Love Does', using the Message version of 1 Corintians 13.3-7. This week Bernie explores that very easy-to-do aspect of love which 'Trusts God Always'. 

In this talk James continues our sermon series on 'Love Does' looking at the concept of truth. Using scripture five scriptures as lenses, we look at truth from different angles to build a framework for how we as Christians enter into a space where truth is more and more divided

This talk starts a new series called "Love Does..." It looks at the various ways that 1 Corinthians 13 highlights how love is practically manifest. Taking The Message translation, "Love does not strut, or have a swelled head" we explore the way pride is an enemy of love by drawing on the lessons from the parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector from Luke's gospel. 

This sermon explored repentance as a Lenten practice — what repentance truly means, and why we often fear it. It reflected on some of the most common barriers to repentance, including fears of vulnerability, misdirection, and anger, while also considering what genuine repentance looks like in practice and the core attributes it requires. Ultimately, it invited us to consider why repentance matters...

Looking at what is meant by Contemplation, how it is described by its great teachers and a chance to experience one of the Ignatian contemplative practices. This is a whistle-stop tour of contemplative prayer and practice, drawing from the wisdom of some of its main teachers - St Theresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, Thomas Merton and others.

We reach the end of our series on WWMI the Cross with a Q&A with questions from members of BGMC. 

We reach the conclusion of our mammoth series on the Atonement and our journey to expand our understanding and appreciation about how Jesus' death saves us. In this talk we do a deep dive into how Jesus' incarnation, death and resurrection deals with the greatest enemy facing humanity and creation, which is death. This is not just a solution to a problem but something far deeper and wider that God...

In a noisy world how do we experience silence? How is silence viewed from the experience of people in the biblical stories? Silence has often been a key component of this Lenten Season but what is our practice of it and posture towards it?

The announcement that the Kingdom of God has arrived in Jesus is fundamental to our understanding of the cross because it is the proclaimation of regime change. As we look to conclude this series, we need to examine how God 'becoming King in Jesus' overthrows, disarms and defeats the existing powers which hold creation and humanity in bondage. What does God's rule and reign look like in the world...

We continue our Live Lent series by examining a major part of the Lenten season - forgiveness. Vince takes us through what it means to live a life of forgiveness, with all its accompanying challenges and joys. 

We live with such distance from 1st Century Judea, we cannot expect to fathom the status and significance of an imperial death penalty like crucifixion. But is it possible to understand how this method of execution is related to the message of the cross that Christianity has preached for the past 200 years? Today we briefly explore how the means and message of the cross are related.

Our new series of 'Live Lent' has kicked off. In this talk James introduces us to the series and drills down into the theme of 'attentiveness' exploring how stories from scripture and experience invite us to make ways to be attentive to God in our everyday.

Where does the death of Jesus fit in with God's telos of reconciling all things to himeslf? How can our view of the cross be compataible with God's desire to 'make world right'? Today we explore how some views of the cross are inconistent with this goal and how justice is achieved.    

This talk has two parts. - the first part is a light-hearted way to recap on some of the things BGMC have been unlearning and re-learning about the cross and second, a deeper exploration of the mechanism of the phrase "Jesus died for us". Many of us have been told this means that Jesus died as a subsititute for us, 'he took the punishment we deserved', his death was 'in our place'. But what if thi...

This is a re-recording of a brief Christmas reflection at BGMC's Carols and Cabaret evening which was celebrating the Community Sponsorship Scheme - Tower Hamlets Welcomes. The soundtrack is from a short film made by 'He Gets Us - Refugee'. You can watch it via You Tube. 

In the final talk in this series, Joe explores the three questions in relation to play and how it resides on 'the spiritual table' of other disciplines in the Christian life.  

“If you want blood, you got it.” When we say that Jesus was a sacrifice for us, we often assume a great deal about what the Bible means by sacrifice. But as we begin to look more closely, we discover that the concept is far richer and more complex than we tend to think. We cannot simply project our ideas about Jesus’ sacrifice back onto the sacrificial practices of the Old and New Testaments. Our...

This week, Chrissy guides us through some thinking around the meaning of worship and how it relates to our everyday existence. 

Every human lives within a Divine Drama and a Sin Story - who God is and what humans are. Various atonement theories communicate flawed and false narratives about both. This week we focus on how the death of Jesus addresses the real 'sin story'. Without an cosmic and comprehensive understanding of the problem, we can never appreciate the size and scope of how much more Jesus has dealt decisively w...

This is part two of a 2019 sermon series at BGMC called “A Jesus-Looking God.” We have added it now to complement the current WWMI the Cross series. While there may be some overlap in themes with the current set ot talks, these previous ones are intended to explore more deeply the flawed belief that God’s nature includes a vengeful, violent, and “holy” side that must be appeased through sacrificia...

This talk was given in 2019 at BGMC as part of our series “A Jesus-Looking God.” It was not included in the original podcast archives, but we have added it now to complement the current WWMI in the Cross series. This message is especially relevant as we are currently exploring the nature of God as revealed in various atonement theories. The first talk is intended not only to challenge the view tha...

In this talk, Bernie explores the part that play functions in our lives. How do the habits of play sit alongside the Christian disciplines of work and rest?