The narrative of Jesus’ birth in Matthew’s gospel opens with a genealogy - a really long list of names. Why does such an amazing account start in such an unengaging way? These verses are often ignored or skimmed through to get to the ‘good stuff’. But in doing so we miss out on some crucial things Matthew wants us to know about Jesus.

For our advent series we take a look at Mary the mother of Jesus, focusing on her Song the ‘Magnificat’, and her surrender to God.

Advent is traditionally the time over four Sundays leading up to Christmas Day – a period of expectant waiting, nowadays often with chocolate filled calendars. But what’s the point of waiting when we know the end of the story? In fact, waiting was a very, very, very big part of the whole story.

Sharing what we’ve found in Jesus with other people can feel like a scary thing to do, but what if this could be done in a really natural and normal way? John 1: 43-51 provides us with some inspiration towards gently helping people to see Jesus for themselves.

As followers of Jesus we can ‘shine and sow’ in many different ways. Discover in the story of The Lame Man from Acts chapter 3, an important principle about shining through choosing to freely give.

Many Christians know they should be telling others about Jesus, but feel inadequate to do so. They worry about what people will think or about getting it wrong, and often have mental list of all the times it ‘didn’t work.’ But what if we’ve missed the main point all along?

One of Jesus’ final instructions to his followers was to go and make more followers. Most Christians know they are supposed to be doing this, but many find it hard to how exactly how to do it. Fortunately, Jesus also left two very helpful metaphors to encourage and equip us.