Providing Hope

The Christian faith provides hope and purpose for billions of people around the world, and many people are interested in learning more about it.

Throughout history, people have explored the Christian faith in four main ways: by reading/hearing the Bible, by engaging with a church community, by trying prayer and by asking big questions.

We would recommend all of these!

So below are some ideas of how you could approach each of them.

The Bible

The Bible is a collection of 66 books, all originating in the ancient Middle East. 39 of these were written before Jesus’ life on earth (and are commonly known as the Old Testament) and 27 were written after (known as the New Testament). Christians throughout the centuries have believed that these books are sacred Scripture, the Church of England describes these books as “containing all things necessary” to be a Christian.

Jesus is the most important character in the Bible, and he is the centre of the Christian faith. So a good place to start in reading the Bible is the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, these books are known as Gospels (which means good news) because they tell the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and help explain why these events are good news for everyone. They are between sixteen to twenty-eight chapters long. As you read books of the Bible, don’t worry if there are bits you don’t understand, keep reading, and re-reading.

Like any subject, understanding the Bible better can come with practice and help, and there will always be more to learn. The Bible can be read/listened to online. Help for reading can be found through groups such as BibleProject (especially their video series: how to read the Bible), and The Bible Society. We at Christ Church are also very happy to discuss helpful ways to read and interpret the Bible, or to introduce you to one of our many Bible-study groups.

You can use the contact form to let us know if you would like this. We will also be running the Bible Society’s Bible Course starting in January 2027.

Church

Everyone is welcome to our church services (link to services), whatever you believe, or whatever your questions. Our services involve praise songs, a talk about the Bible, and prayer.

You can join in with as much or as little as you wish. Coming to a service is a good way to see what a pattern of Christian worship looks like, to learn about the Bible’s teaching, to see a Christian community in action and get to know some friendly people!

As a church we run the Alpha course every year (usually in the Autumn). Alpha is a free, informal course especially designed for those exploring faith. Every session involves food, a video or talk about the Christian faith and then a discussion time where you can share your thoughts and questions without pressure or judgement.

If you are specifically looking to meet a Christian minister to explore questions of faith, read the Bible or discuss baptism or confirmation, then a member of the clergy team would love to meet you.

Prayer

The Christian faith is about a relationship to the creator of the universe through Jesus Christ. Prayer is a key part of that relationship. Jesus taught that prayer is not about special or magic words, but about honest communication with the invisible God, the God who knows us already and knows what we need (see Matthew ch.6).

So prayer can be very simple, such as telling God how you feel, and can include requests such as “please reveal yourself more to me” or “please protect my family today”. Or it can involve longer, prepared words, such as those used by the Church of England for daily prayer.

The more we come to know about God through the Bible and the church community, the more our prayers can develop. So when Jesus (the no.1 expert on prayer) taught to pray he included topics such as God’s kingdom, God’s holiness, and God’s will, these are topics we learn about in the Bible. Again the clergy team would be happy to talk to you if you would like advice on Christian prayer.

Big questions

It is very common for people to ask big questions as part of exploring faith, questions such as: “why is there suffering?”

Or “what about other religions?”. The Bible does engage with questions like this, but it’s not always easy to know where in the Bible to turn.

There are many resources available which try and draw upon the Bible’s teaching to address big questions, these include:

www.bethinking.org and www.reasonablefaith.org