Welcome to Rule of Life

This year we are challenging every member of every congregation to Bring One Friend to an advent, Christmas or epiphany service. This course helps you go step by step through the challenge as together we build a bigger church by bringing one friend.

As well as following the Bishop's summer reading challenge you may like to encourage your church's young people to follow their own version with this challenge designed by Suzanne Finch, from Christ Church Newburgh and St James Westhead.

Join Bishop Paul in this year’s Summer Challenge reading the book of Jonah. Sign up to this course and you will receive weekly emails encouraging you to read sections of Jonah alongside the companion book - Journeying with Jonah: the struggle to find yourself’ by the Roman Catholic scholar Denis McBride. Find out more about the challenge and how you can get involved.

Having understood the reasons why Christians give we need to think about the different ways in which Christians can give. This course offers reflections on different ways that you may want to consider giving as part of your own Rule of Life journey.

Inviting people is both easy and terrifying. Easy because all we have to do is ask. Terrifying because we have a natural fear of rejection. So as we start to think about Bringing One Friend to a service or event this advent and Christmas we need to reflect on what is stopping us. Invitation is the royal road to church growth. Clever flyers, or videos, or talks on the radio – all these have their place, but research has shown that most people come to church, and then come to faith, because of a friend's invitation. In the first of his reflections, Bishop Paul looks at the power of invitation and tackles some of the fears that prevent us from making that invitation.

Here are the resources for the third week of the young persons summer reading challenge.

This week we are challenged by Jonah's prayer in Chapter 2

Our second challenge comes from the second part of Jonah's first chapter.