Complex Characters (September)

September 2022 (4 September - 1 October). 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 Bible Study Questions PDF to see the material adapted for small Connect groups or personal Bible study.

Complex Characters like you and I

The Bible, like a busy pub at closing time, or a heaving post office queue a few days before the Christmas delivery cut off, or a beach on the one day of summer it hasn’t rained, is full of characters. And like the pub, post office, and beach some of these characters are somewhat… complex. The Bible is a rich and fascinating trove of people wrestling with what it is to be human. As we follow the twists and turns of these characters jostling together, it offers sharp insights into what it means to be alive. Dreamers, schemers and screamers!

Once before we looked at the Bible through the lens of ‘complex characters’ surveying a grab bag of striking personalities. This month, off the back of The Simple Life we thought it would be fun to think about complexity again! Our faith is often like that isn’t it? Quiet for a season and then loud. Chaotic and then calm. Simple and then complex.

So, we step once again into the Bible in search of complex characters, but this time we’re also going to expand the concept to think about these complex characters in the complex environments they lived in. As we move from summer to harvest we read about these men and women in the context of climate change and the environmental challenges that face us today. Each of the people we will look at had to deal with the opportunities and limitations of their environments adapting to pressures of land and weather.

When we come to the Bible we meet a complex world full of complex characters a mirror to own complex world and the complex characters like you and I in it. Through this conversation between the two we seek the universal and simple truth that all these complex characters are beloved by God.

Complex Characters beloved by God

Each week of the four 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 Bible Study Questions PDF to see the material adapted for personal Bible study or small Connect groups.