Learning to Live the Life Unknown

According to the Christian charity Home for Good, according to the most recent figures, almost 3,000 children are waiting for adoption. If each church in this country had one family adopt, or supported a family through adoption that number would immediately reduced to nothing. Furthermore fostering services need to recruit 8,100 new carers this year to meet this need and to account for carers who will retire. The God of the bible clearly loves and cares about children, especially the most vulnerable, and as his church we need to ask how God is calling us to respond to this crisis.
In this episode Rev Emma Swarbrick shares her story of calling to ordination and calling into adoption. As with most cases, the stories she tells involves some level of trauma, so please listen with some discretion.
To find out more check out https://www.homeforgood.org.uk/
If you have any questions or want to chat about anything that has come up in this episode then chat to Aidan at church or email podcast@christchurchdownend.com
 

In this latest episode of Learning to Live the Life the podcast, Rev Aidan and Anita meet to discuss questions around our current sermon series considering Honest Questions. As part of the episode, Anita interviews her friend Rosie Button, a former missionary who has been teaching at Redcliffe College, now part of All Nations Christian college.
If you enjoyed this episode of Learning to Live the Life, please do subscribe, share it with your friends and rate us 5* so that more people get recommended it!
 

If you enjoyed this episode of Learning to Live the Life, please do subscribe, share it with your friends and rate us 5* so that more people get recommended it!
In this very special episode of the podcast, Rev Aidan is joined by Rev Denis Adide. Denis is the vicar of St Stephens and St Thomas’ church in Shepherds Bush. The focus of the discussion is around the idea of what does it mean to pick up your cross and follow Jesus in 2021. The discussion focuses on what this challenging command from Jesus looks like in light of lockdowns and in response to racial injustice, 6 months on from the Black Lives Matter protests of the summer. Above all Denis helps us see how following Jesus is the best decision anyone can possibly make!
Find Denis’ podcast series with the Rev Richard Moy called By this they shall know here:-
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/user/ADIDEFILMSinc/videos
Listen as a podcast – https://podpoint.com/feed/9896
https://podpoint.com/its-complicated?utm_source=listennotes.com&utm_campaign=Listen+Notes&utm_medium=website
Also here is Denis’ blog post on Bishop Graham Tomlin’s blog –
https://grahamtomlin.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-wounded-realist-guest-blog-by-denis.html
 
 

Normally we are settling into a pattern of releasing one discussion podcast a month but as an early Christmas present this month we have a bonus episode because with its subject matter it felt like if we waited till next month it would be out of date!
In this episode Rev Aidan and Anita meetup again, this time with Ian Freestone to discuss the emotive question that many have been asking this year: Where are you Lord? We really pray this and all our episodes bless you in your journey with Jesus. If you have any questions or topics for us to discuss, please send us a message podcast@christchurchdownend.com or leave us a message on the facebook page or YouTube channel.
The next episode should be released on New Years day and is a truly special episode with the Rev. Denis Adide, Vicar of St Stephen’s and St Thomas’ in Shepherds Bush, London.

Learning to Live the Life the podcast is available on many major podcast platforms, if it isn’t on yours yet let us know. It is also available to listen to over the telephone on 0117 456 2304 for those who don’t have access to technology. As well as weekly sermons, on the first of every month we are releasing discussion episodes looking at various topics to help people in their Christian discipleship.
 
In this episode Rev Aidan Watson meets with Diane Paddon, head of youth ministry at Christ Church Downend, and two of our young people to find out what has been going on in CCD youthwork, but also to discuss the challenges faced by young people in our communities. Within the discussion there are clear encouragements for people of all ages in their own Christian journeys!
 
The video version of this episode can be viewed here:-

Learning to Live the Life the podcast is available on many major podcast platforms, if it isn’t on yours yet let us know. It is also available to listen to over the telephone on 0117 456 2304 for those who don’t have access to technology.
As well as weekly sermons, on the first of every month we are releasing discussion episodes looking at various topics to help people in their Christian discipleship. These are also available on our YouTube channel and this episode can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP0kmIRVtv8&t=869s&ab_channel=ChristChurchDownend
In this very special episode of our podcast Anita Dobson and Rev. Aidan Watson meet with Rev. Dr Helen Paynter to discuss what we do with difficult passages we might read in the Old Testament in particular of the bible. Helen is a Baptist minister, an Old Testament scholar, a lecturer at Bristol Baptist College where she is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence and she is also an author.
The title of this episode follows the title of Helen’s book that came out last year – God of Violence yesterday, God of Love today?: Wrestling honestly with the Old Testament. We thoroughly recommend this book and you can get it here: https://www.eden.co.uk/god-of-violenc…
Helen has also just published a profoundly important new book using the bile to understand the violence of today’s world called: The Bible Doesn’t Tell Me So: Why you don’t have to submit to domestic abuse and coercive control. This can be bought here: https://www.eden.co.uk/the-bible-does…
Also, Helen, alongside Professor Andrew Feldman, hosts a podcast of her own called Guns and God, which seeks to explore how faith and politics overlap. Conversations focus on a diverse range of topics, such as antisemitism, the myth of redemptive violence, BLM, Islamism, and Donald Trump. It is available on various podcast platforms or can be found here https://gunsandgod.buzzsprout.com/
You can find more from the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence here:-
https://www.facebook.com/CSBVBristolBaptistCollege/
https://www.bristol-baptist.ac.uk/study-centres/csbv/