We had a good number in for our first week of the new discover service at Parkside.

This was the first week that we had served coffee (and other drinks) in the main hall and it seemed to work well, with those arriving, happy to partake and mingle ahead of the main service.

The opening week was chaired by Phil and began with an a capella version of I do not know what lies ahead and prayer.

Phil explained about the new format for discover and that the children would be going out for their activities at 12:00pm, at which point Alan Michael would begin a six week series using content from the well-known Christianity Explored course.

After a number of children’s choices, it was time for the children to adjourn to the back rooms, along with Lesley, Sarah and Brian.

Phil read from Mark 1:1-15, before handing over to Alan.

Alan’s title for the first week of the course was ‘Good News: What are we doing here?’ and worked through the first few verses of Mark 1, explaining them one verse at a time.

At the end of the service, Alan offered some handouts with questions on, based on the passage covered, as well as inviting questions either via pen and paper or making use of Twitter.

We were very pleased with how the first week went and look forward to hearing David Angell next week, who will be taking the second week of the course, with the subject Identity: Who is Jesus?

You can download a copy of Alan’s slides from Week 1 of discover here – discover-week-1-05012014.pdf or download the talk by right-clicking on the link below and selecting ‘Save link as…’.  Alternatively, press the play button to listen directly from the website.

Discover Week 1

We hope you’ll be able to join us next week.