We invite you to follow along with us as we explore our new theme The Simple Life. You can use this material for group discussion or personal Bible study. Check out each week's section, watch the introductory video to each week's sub theme and read and reflect your way through this month's passages.

We’ve entitled the month of August’s theme The Simple Life. Each day in our Daily Worship we will follow a version of a generic theme as we think about some of the core fundamentals of life. Sundays we will think about re-creation. Mondays we will concentrate on the importance of relationships. Tuesdays will be all about giving thanks for the things we have. Wednesdays we will concentrate on justice, peace and the gift of sport. Thursdays we have set aside to focus on the idea of wellbeing. Fridays will invite us to consider the important place art plays in all of our lives. Finally, Saturdays will invite us to reflect on the impact work has in helping us understand the moral dilemmas of living in diverse communities.

As we reflect upon some of these issues I’m certain that we will begin to see that the Bible has much to say to all of us who are searching for a greater sense of purpose and meaning in our daily lives. Exploring our daily lives through these seven themes will allow the Holy Spirit to teach us about humility, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness and love.

The theme The Simple Life invites to reassess our attitudes to key resources like money, gifts, education, and work. Above all we hope this theme teaches us more about the nature and character of God. We discover that God is our Father who is greatly concerned for all of his creation and that he has no favourites but he has roles for each of us to play. The Simple Life invites us to put an adjective beside each day of the week to help us live out our daily worship.

Download the Discussion Questions as a PDF

These discussion questions adapt our monthly themes for small Connect Groups or personal Bible study (look up The Simple Life Resource Pack PDF for more information on this month's theme). The questions are divided into 4 parts to correspond with the 4 weeks of the Daily Worship theme. They are offered as a guideline and there is no need to go through all the given questions in a single session, or in the following sequence. Feel free to pick and choose, or adapt to what interests you or your group.

Find out more on this month's theme: The Simple Life

What are Connect Groups? 

‘Connect Groups’ is the name we give to small informal gatherings who decide to meet together to explore the Bible alongside our monthly themes. These groups are independent and folk can simply set up their own Connect Group themselves, meeting together with friends and family on their own basis. In this time of Lockdowns when people can’t get together physically this material can still be used to meet together online.

Each month we produce a range of questions to adapt our themes for group discussion. The material is offered as a starting point and there is no need to go through all the questions.You can pick and choose, tailoring it to suit the needs and interests of your group. Each ‘Part’ could form the basis of a weekly roughly 90 minute meeting but you could break it up differently. Let us know if you would like to find out more about Connect Groups and different ways of linking into the Sanctuary First community.

We all come to the Bible with our own questions, insights and barriers. The guiding principle we have in writing these is to ask questions we don’t already know the answer to! Our hope is to facilitate open-ended discussions. Often the most valuable parts of group chats are the bits that go off on bizarre tangents. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Jesus knows a thing or two about bizarre tangents…

Need some advice on starting your own Connect Group? Get in touch.