Sermons to Self: Touching God

The Christian faith is difficult--intellectually morally and spiritually. People struggle to make sense of it and to live it. Many give up. Sitting in the pew (an increasing rarity) with a Christian upbringing and education behind him Christopher Ward finds the practice and the preaching of the church unhelpful in resolving these struggles. He is tempted to give up and reject it all. Before he does however he is determined to make one last attempt to explore what it all means to him guided only by what he hears and reads in the Bible Sunday to Sunday. Christopher Ward takes the four readings appointed for each Sunday in one year and identifies those verses that have a particular resonance for him. He then explores his personal response to them unaided by academic study or biblical commentary and analyzes their cumulative impact on his thinking. This exercise results in unexpected discoveries and new trains of thought plus many frustrations and much perplexity. In the end his struggles are rewarded by a realization that his faltering faith has more to support it than he first believed. The author has listened long and hard to sermons and church statements waiting to hear something relevant to Monday to Friday realities. This work comes out of his own frustrations as he calls his own bluff to see what emerges directly from lectionary readings. The result probably surprised him as much as others. Here is testament to the vivid and still contemporary challenges of many robust biblical exchanges not least in the words and actions of Jesus. It is radical in the true meaning of the word--coming from a digging up of the roots covered over by the soil of centuries of internal church culture. --Robin Morrison Bishops Adviser for Church and Society Barry Wales UK Christopher Wards fascinating book invites us all to look anew at what we believe and what is the relevance to us today of the Bible. In an increasingly secular world it challenges us to find a third way between the twin poles of belief and unbelief to in his words have faith in our doubts. --Colin Heyman lay preacher Cardiff Wales UK For those like me who toddle off to church and are frequently bemused by the lessons of the day this is a fresh insightful approach by an intelligent layman. . . . Its a questioning questing book about what the Bible says we are here for. --Colin Luke film director Mosaic Films London UK Christopher Ward is a speaker writer and charity trustee. He is a Methodist by upbringing but became an Anglican while at university. He has been Chief Executive of organizations in the private public and voluntary sectors in the UK. He speaks under the brand name The Management Preacher on a wide range of management and leadership issues but particularly on how to make all work meaningful. He is the author of Company Courtesy (1990) and Meaningful Work (2011).