Letter to Jewish Exiles in Babylon (598 BC)

Abandoned by God?

Can we really change in 2010?

• Don’t despair ! There is hope (v11).

God’s gracious plan – Christ (33:15)

“...I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah (31:31)

...For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more (31:34).

....I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people (31:33)

Can we really change in 2010?

• Don’t despair ! There is hope (v11)

• You are the hope of the city (v 7)

Seek the Shalom of the city to which I have carried you into exile.

Jeremiah 29:7

“Mission is putting love where love is

not.”St John of the cross

H O P E

“Seek the shalom of the city to which I have carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:7

“Seek the shalom of the city to which I have carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:7

There is inbuilt into human beings a dangerous taste for unreality.Idols promise much but deliver little.

Rowan Williams Archbishop of Canterbury

Jim Wallis

Can we really change in 2010?

• Don’t despair ! There is hope (v11)

• You are the hope of the city (v 7)

• Seeking God’s transformation ( v12-13)

Those who cling to worthless idols

Forfeit the grace that could be

theirs Jonah 2:7-8

2009 – the challenge

“I believe that God is calling His church here in Billericay to step forward and be counted, to go for a substantial increase in personal commitment and in service built on the foundation of our relationship with Jesus.

(1) A challenge to self-examination and repentance

(2) A challenge to put service about self

2010 – pastoral strategy

(1) Helping you to find freedom in Christ.

(2) Helping you to rediscover your first love.

(3) Helping you to be a whole life disciple.

Shalom in the church...Shalom in the city.