Avenues Five Senses Weekly Challenge
Touch - Reach out and touch someone with a visit, a card, an email, a bunch of flowers, a phone call, a gift, an act of kindness, or a time or monetary donation to a cause or charity.
Taste - Share the taste sensation of a meal or a cup of coffee in the company of another or others
Smell - Seek out God's fragrance in your life. Go for a walk along the beach, in the park, listen to music or sit in silent mediation and reflection
Hear - Listen to God's voice in your life. Read or study the bible or other literature that gives insight into understanding more about the nature of God.
See - Look for ways God is calling you and recognise the ways in which God is using you to do God's work in your ordinary, everyday life
Storytime in the Big Chair
Jesus told stories to teach his disciples and followers. We value the place of a good story, whether it be a children’s picture book story, a biblical or contemporary parable, a real-life news story or a real event from someone’s own experience, a movie clip, a dramatic reading, a setting the scene fairytale… there is power in story.
We recognise that we walk within God’s Big Story. To understand what that means we recommend reading the following book.
We Make the Road by Walking
Avenues has recently used Brian McLaren's book, "We Make the Road by Walking" as a resource to understand the Big Story we find ourselves within. This book is a great way of understanding the whole biblical narrative and making sense of it in our current generation. Whether you've had a Christian faith for a little or a long time, the book is inspirational and easy reading. The idea is to read a chapter each week, but if you’d rather read it more quickly you can.
Avenues Prayer Room
Welcome to the Avenues Prayer Room. We like to use prayers that are interactive and not necessarily words based. The prayer on this page includes a visual element so that you can look at your screen and pray or you may prefer to get outside and go for a walk and pray this prayer. Please stay and pause, reflect and pray.
Prayer - A Walking Prayer
Take away my foolish desires, and let me find life by walking with you. Psalm 119:37
You choose the setting, the time and the route to go for a walk. Before you begin, ask God to journey with you on your walk. Turn your walk into a prayer walk. Begin by talking about what is happening around you, what you can see, what sounds you can hear, what you can smell... move on to what is happening in your own life, what troubles you have, what burdens, what sorrows, what joys and what delights... Take your prayer thinking out beyond yourself to others that you know who are close to you... concerns for family, friends, neighbours... then go beyond people you know to the community in which you live, work and play, and beyond to issues for your country and then beyond to issues facing the world. If you're walking with someone else, take turns to pray one sentence prayers as you walk. If you're walking with children, take a moment to pause between your changing prayer scenes, to introduce what your next topic of prayer. Enjoy walking with the Lord!
Bible Reading Room
At Avenues we read the Bible and use it to understand and shape our Christian Journey, both as individuals and as a church together. Our Avenues events usually include, and are typically built around a Bible reading. We tend to use a translation with contemporary language. CEV or Contemporary English Version is a firm favourite.
We encourage personal Bible reading. It's not easy to find the time to read the Bible, and even when we do have time, it's not easy to know where to start. This 'room' on our website tries to give helpful hints on reading the bible and some suggested readings based on our current themes. If you don't own a Bible or the Bible on your bookshelf has olde worlde language, then follow the links and read an online version of the scriptures.
Avenues Bible Reading Hints & Suggestions
John 12.20-33
Touch - Reach out and touch someone with a visit, a card, an email, a bunch of flowers, a phone call, a gift, an act of kindness, or a time or monetary donation to a cause or charity.
Taste - Share the taste sensation of a meal or a cup of coffee in the company of another or others
Smell - Seek out God's fragrance in your life. Go for a walk along the beach, in the park, listen to music or sit in silent mediation and reflection
Hear - Listen to God's voice in your life. Read or study the bible or other literature that gives insight into understanding more about the nature of God.
See - Look for ways God is calling you and recognise the ways in which God is using you to do God's work in your ordinary, everyday life
Storytime in the Big Chair
Jesus told stories to teach his disciples and followers. We value the place of a good story, whether it be a children’s picture book story, a biblical or contemporary parable, a real-life news story or a real event from someone’s own experience, a movie clip, a dramatic reading, a setting the scene fairytale… there is power in story.
We recognise that we walk within God’s Big Story. To understand what that means we recommend reading the following book.
We Make the Road by Walking
Avenues has recently used Brian McLaren's book, "We Make the Road by Walking" as a resource to understand the Big Story we find ourselves within. This book is a great way of understanding the whole biblical narrative and making sense of it in our current generation. Whether you've had a Christian faith for a little or a long time, the book is inspirational and easy reading. The idea is to read a chapter each week, but if you’d rather read it more quickly you can.
Avenues Prayer Room
Welcome to the Avenues Prayer Room. We like to use prayers that are interactive and not necessarily words based. The prayer on this page includes a visual element so that you can look at your screen and pray or you may prefer to get outside and go for a walk and pray this prayer. Please stay and pause, reflect and pray.
Prayer - A Walking Prayer
Take away my foolish desires, and let me find life by walking with you. Psalm 119:37
You choose the setting, the time and the route to go for a walk. Before you begin, ask God to journey with you on your walk. Turn your walk into a prayer walk. Begin by talking about what is happening around you, what you can see, what sounds you can hear, what you can smell... move on to what is happening in your own life, what troubles you have, what burdens, what sorrows, what joys and what delights... Take your prayer thinking out beyond yourself to others that you know who are close to you... concerns for family, friends, neighbours... then go beyond people you know to the community in which you live, work and play, and beyond to issues for your country and then beyond to issues facing the world. If you're walking with someone else, take turns to pray one sentence prayers as you walk. If you're walking with children, take a moment to pause between your changing prayer scenes, to introduce what your next topic of prayer. Enjoy walking with the Lord!
Bible Reading Room
At Avenues we read the Bible and use it to understand and shape our Christian Journey, both as individuals and as a church together. Our Avenues events usually include, and are typically built around a Bible reading. We tend to use a translation with contemporary language. CEV or Contemporary English Version is a firm favourite.
We encourage personal Bible reading. It's not easy to find the time to read the Bible, and even when we do have time, it's not easy to know where to start. This 'room' on our website tries to give helpful hints on reading the bible and some suggested readings based on our current themes. If you don't own a Bible or the Bible on your bookshelf has olde worlde language, then follow the links and read an online version of the scriptures.
Avenues Bible Reading Hints & Suggestions
John 12.20-33
- Follow the link to each of these Bible readings or use the reference to look them up in your own Bible.
- Read the passage over once.
- Ask yourself - 'What is this passage about?'
- Pray asking God to give you fresh insight about your own life as you read it again.
- Read it over again this time more slowly.
- Think about what this passage is saying to you about your life.
- Focus on a word or phrase in the passage. Repeat it to yourself several times.
- Silently reflect on the passage.
- Pray giving thanks to God for fresh insight.