So this is what we did at church this morning...

We listened to the whole of Hebrews 11, the catalogue of faithful people.

Then we looked up a few verses about five of them - Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David - that revealed their flawed natures.  Well, 'we' is really the congregation who were invited to look up the verses and ask themselves (roughly)

• what was flawed about this person?
• why do you think this incident might have been included in the Bible record?
• what glimpses of the nature of God do we see?
• how might this speak to us about our own lives?

People were amazing!  They gathered in small groups and spent their allocated five minutes in deep discussion.

The thrust of the sermon was that even the heroes of faith were flawed, that sometimes the Bible can act as a mirror in which we see our own reflection, that it is a 'holy, human story' and that above all God is a God of second and third and fourth and .... chances - God never gives up.

Quite a few people commented favourably about the experience, so maybe I'll do it again some time!

Just as exciting I have some volunteers to read the Bible in all sorts of unusual languages next week.  Yay!