Lent 2022 - Baggage and Treasures

The idea behind this course is to explore what gifts and ministries the local church has; its strengths and weaknesses as it relates to growth and mission. 

In short

• What are our local church's treasures?
• What can we discard as baggage?

It moves to two important challenges

• If God sees me as an earthen vessel, what is the Treasure I transport?
• The last session invites the participants to take a new step forward together. 

This will complement Living Ely 2025 and will enable congregations to think about the life of the local church. This is such a helpful resource as we move away from the recent pandemic and begin to think about the implications of the pandemic on our life and witness.

Originally written as a BBC Radio Stoke Lent course in 1999 by Clifford Owen it will updated for our use.  Clifford now lives in Huntingdon and in 2012 retired from the Anglican Chaplaincy in Oostende and Brugge, Belgium.

Baggage and Treasures - Lent 2022 (downloads)

• The updated Lent course for 2022 is now available to download here.
• Supporting video resources will be published on the Diocesan YouTube channel in early 2022, so please do look out for updates for when they are available.

Baggage and Treasures - Lent 2022 (video resources)

The Baggage and Treasures - Lent 2022 video resources are available to view on the Diocesan Youtube channel by clicking here.

The content of each video is also summarised below, explaining what you can expect from the content.

Week 1 - Church Buildings

Video 1 - General Introduction

Week 1 has a 5 minute introduction video set out as follows:

• 0.00 to 1.45 - General Introduction
• 1.45 to 4.00 - Opportunity for prayer for the churches in the individual contexts. Music is played in the background and the video shows the 12 churches in our context in West Norfolk. Some groups may wish to show a powerpoint slide show of churches in the local context.
• 4.00 to 5.00 - Introduction to ‘The Building’

Video 2 - Notice Boards

This is an optional video that some might want to use if they are having the discussion about notice boards. Added from a humorous perspective looking at some mock ups of the notice boards I created. 

Week 2 - Inside the Church

Video 1 - Buildings in the Bible

• The first video for week 2 is a 3.30 minute video. Last year we used this as a review of week 1 (the buildings) as we started looking inside the building during this second week.
• The video takes a whistle stop tour of buildings in the Bible, but ends looking at where the new testament believers started to meet.
• In last year's context in the West Norfolk Priory Group, which was specific to our needs at the time, we used the course to move people away from the building being the most important aspect of the church to seeing the people as the most important.

Video 2 - Inside the Church - (The HGV)

• The second video for week 2 is a 3 minute video comparing the church to the HGV - yes there is a link!

Week 3 - Has Our Fire Gone Out

Week 3 has a 3.45 minute video that could be split in two halves or played back to back:

• 0m to 2.30m - General Introduction
• 2.30m to 3.45m - The Stream Train

Week 4 - The United Church

• Week 4 has a 4.30 minute introduction video talking about unity in the church.

Week 5 - The Treasures in Us

Week 5 has a 7 minute video talking about the baggage and treasures within us. It includes some reflective music as we invite people to spend some time reflecting on the baggage and treasures in us as individuals.

• 0m to 2.30m - General Introduction
• 2.30m to 7m - Time for Reflection (Reflective Music starts at 3.30)

Week 6 - Moving On

Week 6 has a 5.30 minute video set out in two parts. It could be used as one, used as two separate videos, or indeed local groups may decide to just use one of them.

• 0m to 2m - General Introduction
• 2m to 7m - We are on a pilgrimage.