[Originally broadcast the week of 29th April 2024]

Are you someone who can fall asleep easily? Or do you have trouble nodding off and struggle to wake up?

Have you ever wondered why we need sleep? Or what is happening to our bodies and minds when we are in slumberland?

Joining Helen to explore in this week's Life Issues is Dr Lindsay Browning, a neuroscientist and author of Navigating Sleeplessness.

In the last few years, we’ve seen a real growth in understanding of Neurodiversity. Although for some, function is severely limited, we now seem to recognise not just need but also possibility, contribution and value to society, workplace, communities and churches that comes with a greater openness from the neurotypical to walk alongside rather than disparage, the neurodiverse, to engage rather than distance.

In this week’s Life Issues, Wired Differently: The Strengths of Neurodiversity, Paul is joined by Fiona MacMillan who herself is Neurodivergent and chairs the Church of England’s Neurodiversity working group and Bex Chapman who is Mum to Neurodiverse children and also part of the working group.

Have we forgotten what Jesus told us to do? On the list of priorities for each day, how easy do we find it to go and make disciples of all nations? Author Phil More has been learning from a disciple making movement which has brought incredible revival to some of the places in the world its hardest to live as a Christian. In this week’s Life Issues, we will consider what have we overlooked or never seen before in the instructions Jesus has given us to live out his mission today?

[Originally broadcast the week of 8th Nov 2021]

Our news is often saturated with stories of hostilities across a divided world. We may even ask ourselves if there can be any hope for peace in these days? In this episode of Life Issues Dan Morrice encourages us with unreported and inspirational tales of peacemakers around the globe to spur us on in our own efforts to be people of peace.

[Originally broadcast the week of 8th Nov 2021]

Our news is often saturated with stories of hostilities across a divided world. We may even ask ourselves if there can be any hope for peace in these days? In this episode of Life Issues Dan Morrice encourages us with unreported and inspirational tales of peacemakers around the globe to spur us on in our own efforts to be people of peace.

[Originally broadcast the week of 14th February 2022]

What is prayer, why do people find it challenging or fabulous or somewhere in between? And when it comes to listening to God - how do we know when we’re hearing from the one who made or when it’s ‘just us’? Amy Boucher Pye takes on all these questions and more in this episode of Life Issues.

How do you lose labels that others put on you, or perhaps even the labels we put on ourselves? Particularly when those labels tell you that you’ll never amount to anything? Rob Parsons OBE looks back on his life’s journey in this week’s Life Issues to share how he overcame discouraging words spoken over him one step at a time.

[Originally broadcast the week of 30th October 2023] We can often be made to feel like we have to choose between faith and science? But what if we don’t? What if science can actually prove God? Steph Bevan from God and the Big Bang joins Helen Lea for this week’s Life Issues conversation.

Throughout history, the Bible has been used as a weapon to subjugate and oppress, to validate attitudes and positions of power that fly in the face of the example of Jesus’ life.  Well, the Word of God is like a two-edged sword, but Who are we supposed to deploy it against? And what are the risks if it is used wrongly?

Paul explores more, in this week’s Life Issues  Weaponizing the Bible with Revd Dr Helen Paynter.

[Originally broadcast the week of 4th March 2019] If Jesus is for everyone, why is church often a place where society’s misfits can also feel marginalised? And even if all are welcome, how do we create a space where all are made to feel safe? Paul Hammond is joined by Sean Stillman, aka ‘God’s Biker’, to share about a church that is often a mix of an AA meeting and a casualty department in this week’s Life Issues.