Simply Jesus – a reflection.

John Noble, Tom Cumming and Dani reflect on their small group ‘Simply Jesus’;

“It seems a long time since the middle of March this year and I was asked to run a Growth Group – ‘Simply Jesus’. Professor Tom Wright should be no stranger to us, being a favourite author of some leader in CCE and typically there was no ‘simply’ about it!

A few weeks ago, we came to the end of the study and suddenly my Thursday evenings became free, it was then I realised how much I looked forwards to seeing the group on Zoom. Alongside this, getting to know and understand the history, life and times that Jesus lived in whetted everyone’s appetite for more. For me there were times of thinking ‘I knew that, why didn’t I put those points together?’ or ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’ as Tom took us through several familiar Bible passages.

Personally, I would not let Zoom put you off getting involved or running a study. I think I speak for all the group that Thursday evenings were a special time, to have conversation and learn – a journey that was well worth it. In many ways the group was an anchor in the midst of stormy seas.” John.

“Simply Jesus helped me see how God is Christ-like. I could see how the Jesus story of the Bible is actually seen right through the different parts of the old testament. It was great to study this as part of a group and help each other understand together. Also, our host John Noble is the best host, such a great guy!” Tom.

“It’s been refreshing to have been part of this growth group. Over 15 weeks together, we’ve delved deeper into the actions and sayings of Jesus as they were understood at the time: beautiful, mysterious and dangerous.

I loved taking this journey with others in CCE and having good structure (important in zoom meetings) with room to get to know one another.

Through videos we listened to NT Wright shed new light on the gospel narrative by gathering together Jewish understanding of the Hebrew scriptures as well as the political and social climate of the time. Each week I marvelled at how understanding context in this way made familiar stories come alive with new meaning and depth. Now that we’ve reached the end, I find myself completely in awe again with the person of Jesus, and I know I’ll never read the gospels the same way again!” Dani.