Bethnal Green Mission Church

Our WWMI series takes us deeper into the unfolding drama of Moses and Israel. The story of Moses and Zipporah on their journey to Egypt is one of the weirdest and puzzling in the Old Testament. What does this divine threat and confrontation in the middle of the desert mean? Why does Zipporah's strange words and actions avert this threat? We offer some possible meanings and reflection on how this m...

Our Hinterland Habits series takes us to another 'far-off' aspect of our spiritual formation - courage. What does the courageous Christian life look like? What are the challenges to our faith which a habit of courage can help us face?

Exodus chapter 1 ends on an ominous and dark note. The Egyptian empire strikes back. Yet, in the hostile, killing waters of the Nile, there seems to be something emerging which continues the trajectory of resistance and rebellion, started by the courageous Shiphrah and Puah. The beginnings of Moses' life and the unlikely conspiracy of three audacious women who resist empire brims with irony, liter...

'Yes' is a powerful word. In the context of faith, it provides a rich context for the way in which God works in the world and our response. It implies partnership, consent, and covenant. What does it mean for people of faith to practice saying 'yes' as a habit of spiritual formation and what examples from the bible can we learn from?

"Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.” - Sue Monk Kidd In this second talk of our Hinterland Habits series, James explores storytelling as a spiritual practice and how it can be a spiritual discipline that not only connects us with ourselves but also has the potential to be subversive to oppressive structures around us.

Hinterland Habits are those far off, distant habits of spiritual formation that we may have not considered before. How might we practice curiosity as a spiritual discipline? Looking at how this connects with Moses, Mission, Creativity and Communion, we ask how we can follow Jesus in openness and vulnerability; letting go of our boxes and fears and embodying the strength of this Love in faith.

The book of Exodus is about how a family became a nation. We encounter this community of people flourishing and multiplying in Egypt, living out what creation was intended to do in Genesis. Yet a new dynasty of empire sees this growing immigrant community as threat and seeks to enslave and diminish it. From where will deliverance come? Can an empire the size and power of Egypt be ever outwitted an...

Jesus was great at asking people who they thought he was. This segment of Matthew provides one of the most acclaimed public confessions of the entire gospel. Jesus's response has equally resonated throughout history. What does it mean for us?

Ancient storytelling in Genesis is a beautiful and complex thing. What have we missed in the bizarre and bemusing and sometimes, sordid stories of Israel's beginnings? We find clues in this drama that point us to the authors' wider intention and perspective. One of these is the struggle of sibling rivalry. What can we learn from the struggle of family dysfunction, favouritism, trickery, deceit and...

The Binding of Isaac looms large in Jewish and Christian storytelling. Much of our struggle with this passage is with the portrait of God it depicts and the nature of the test that Abraham is given. Is God asking for total obedience, a show of loyalty or proof of faith? In this talk we unpack possible alternative readings of this encounter and wonder if Abraham is unlearning and re-learning who Go...

urgan Möltmann said: “Christianity…is hope, forward looking and forward moving and therefore also revolutionary and transforming of the present.”The Canaanite woman mentioned in this story was seen as a sinner, part of an unclean ‘other’ group, but she refused to be silenced. She knew who she was and understood more deeply than the disciples, the mission of the Messiah. Where and in what ways can...

The story of the great patriarch and matriarch of Israel, Abram and Sarai is brimming with the beauty of God's call, promise and blessing, right? Yet, how do we reconcile this also as a story of dysfunctional and destructive relationships, of injustice and trauma? How can this messy, ancient and inspired story speak to us and what have we missed from the encounters between God and Abram, Sarai and...

If God's work of making creation good, in Genesis, is not about a perfect paradise but about relational order and well-being, what does it mean for God to rest on Day 7 after his work? We might be surprised to consider a new dimension to the concept of Sabbath rest when we understand what God was doing in the first place. Is rest relaxation, or stopping work or is it participating in what God did,...

Genesis is a stunning piece of ancient literature but how does it behave and what it is going on? Three millennia of Jewish midrash and church history about the meaning of Genesis 1 and 2 is not being attempted in this episode. However, by digging a bit deeper into the ancient meaning of several words in these chapters, we might be surprised by what we have missed. It might also challenge us to re...

Our new series will explore how we have missed in our reading of the bible - the boring bits, obscure bits, difficult bits - and there are a lot of these. Perhaps we have missed so much because we have failed to understand what the bible actually is and it how it behaves as a God's word in human words. This inspired, complex, diverse and ancient literary product requires our hard work and attentiv...

The beauty of the gospels is located in their rich stories of Jesus' encounters with many different people. What does the good news of God's Kingdom mean for these diverse Saints, Sinners and Seekers whom Jesus met? Today we explore Jesus' encounter with a man with a skin disease.

We reach the end of our series on Rescuing Romans and tackle a much misunderstood and misinterpreted subject - foreknowledge and predestination. Does God really choose some people for very different eternal destines based on his random choice? Whilst some Christians can be ambivalent or confused, there is no doubt there is a lot at stake for holding to particular versions of these theologically he...

We live in a world that judges. Our words, body shape, instagram posts, politics, and food preferences are among those things we judge others and are judged by. What does Jesus call the church to be and do in a world where judgement is often the currency of relationships?

Righteousness and Justification. You can't get much bigger in heavyweight theological themes in Romans. For most Christians, to even mention these subjects is to induce a catatonic state. How can some of Paul's favourite themes be rescued from irrelevancy? In this talk, we bring together Paul's first century Roman context with some important observations made by David Zahl in his recent book, Secu...

What is Paul's vision for the in-Christ community of diverse Roman believers? Jewish and Gentiles Jesus followers now participate in the cosmic story of God's renewal of all things. Their status signals new ownership, new family and a new mission. If this is our new location, what does it mean to live out this in-Christ status and story?

In an uncertain world, Jesus' command for his followers 'not to worry' is seemingly impossible to live out on face value. If this is the case, what does he mean? How can we strive to let go of worry whilst recognising that the Christian life is not a blissful, care-free existence?

What we have learnt about Paul's letter to the Romans is that the issues of identity formation in that 1st century church are not too dissimilar to our struggles in the 21st century. Paul relentlessly stressed that this diverse church now existed, pivoted, lived from and in a new permanent location - that of being 'in-Christ'. This re-location means living under a new realm, with a new allegiance...

Who are we? One of Paul's most celebrated ideas about the identity of the church is about Christians being 'in-Christ'. Our journey through Romans continues to teach us that theological truth has to be a lived truth, embodied in our behaviour. Theological truth doesn't come much bigger than the concept of being in-Christ, but why did he share this with the Roman church and what bearing does it hav...

Jesus reserves much of his hard-hitting teaching for the warning against how money (and other earthly treasures) can steal our affections and allegiance to God. How can we faithfully follow Jesus within our challenging 21st century culture of accumulation? Bob Dylan famously sang, 'You gotta Serve Somebody", who and what is our master?

Romans chapter 5 is about ancestry and lineage and how two central characters affect the status and condition of human life. Paul presents the cosmic consequences of Adams way - sin, death, and condemnation and contrasts that with the revolutionary way of Jesus - faithfulness, life and grace. But can we locate in Paul's words something deeper and more powerful than just a contrast and comparison b...