All Things New (May)

May 2022 (1 May - 4 June). See the Resource Pack PDF for information on the weekly subthemes and the daily prompts and Bible readings which shape our Daily Worship. See the Study Questions PDF to see the material adapted for small Connect groups or personal Bible study.

God is in the business of making all things new

Throughout the Bible, and across human history, and in this current age, God surprises us with new things. As Spring gathers pace, what are the new things that God is showing you in your life? In your community? In your corner of the Kingdom?

All this month we’re thinking about newness with God. We will explore the tension of how an eternal unchanging God can at the same time being doing new things. We will be asking what is ‘newness’ anyway? What does it mean to be new? Or to be made new?

And how about that sometimes patronising phrase when we talk about someone being ”a new Christian”? How can we cherish wisdom and experience without creating a status system where the insights of newcomers are diminished? And shouldn’t we all try to be new Christians anyway, however long we’ve been at it? Ever new. Ever green. Ever open.

Because newness isn’t the same as novelty. Newness doesn’t have to mean a fad or a craze or a revolution, change for change’s sake. A tree will likely spend its whole life in one small patch of forest, not moving or going anywhere but still forever new — growing, adapting, developing, listening to the world around it.

A tree may be rooted to the same spot but it’s always finding new ways to be. Even in decay a tree becomes something new for others, with fallen logs being an important part of the forest ecosystem.

Embracing newness with God doesn’t have to mean always chasing the latest trend. Newness with God is realising that openness to change and blossoming and refinement are part of being faithful. The ever-new is blessedly all around us, and we can be ever-new in our relationship with the world. Each year is new again. Each spring brings newness. And each present moment is always new, hand given to you.

God always gives us new opportunities. New ways to see, to understand. God’s love is new for you each day, it doesn’t go stale. It’s alive. It’s simultaneously ancient and new.

The Spirit is moving and all things are being made new. Even you.

So when we come to God with the things that are broken, God replies: It’s not written off, discarded, thrown aside, irredeemable. It can be made new.

All things can be made new.

Each week of the five week theme runs Sunday-Saturday and has its own subtheme, which contains daily Bible readings and prompts for thought (see the Resource Pack PDF for more information). See the Study Questions PDF to see the material adapted for personal Bible study or small Connect groups.