Totally Authentic (June)

Open the Resource Pack PDF for all the information on the weekly subthemes and the daily prompts and Bible readings which shape our Daily Worship and live streams. (1 June - 5 July) Each month we have a Connect Bible study PDF that accompanies the theme.

Totally Authentic

You have got nothing to prove and everything to gain! You are totally authentic!

You do not have to prove yourself to God. You are marked already with the maker’s seal, the Holy Spirit already walks with you, knows your heart, knows you at a cellular and a soul level. You are a 100% original, 100% the genuine article. We are living through times that are a bit of a double edged sword. Unstable, unpredictable and unprecedented… and yet constantly updating with new information, analysis and insights. We know more than ever what we don’t know!

There’s a lot of noise and it’s easy to lose ourselves in it, to forget who we are, to feel flimsy and insubstantial in the face of current events and global crises. In arts and culture and across society there is a hunger for authenticity, for something genuine to cling to in the face of news overload, sensationalism, and disinformation. It can be hard not to feel like just another cog in a wheel, or another line of code in an algorithm — pushed around by business interests, big tech, media personalities and politicians. Indeed sometimes we literally find ourselves having to prove our humanity in the face of machines wanting to ensure that we are not frauds. We are increasingly drawn to the authentic and genuine, both within ourselves and in the world. To prove that we’re still here, that we still matter, that we have a stake in the planet. That we’re not just another voter, or consumer, or user, or data point.

But God already knows you’re authentic. That you’re unique.

Because God made you that way. 

How can we let this truth ground us in these uncertain times? As we rediscover in Ephesians 1: 3-14, we already belong, we are already accepted, we are already being gathered in. We already have our humanity as a gift from God! The approval, esteem, recognition, personhood, we strive for is something we can already find in Christ. How does it change our lives when we begin with the principle that there is already a place where we belong, where we are understood, where we are loved, where we matter? How can this help us to shape authentic communities of love and respect where others can discover that they belong, that we are understood, that they are loved?

Weekly overview:

• The longing that never goes away

• The revolution will be subtitled

• What is integrity anyway?

• Always more questions

• A genuine person

Each week of this theme runs Sunday-Saturday and has its own subtheme, which contains daily Bible readings and prompts for thought (see the Resource Pack PDF for more information). Check out our Connect Bible Study Questions PDF that accompanies this month's theme.