Summer letter 2026
image: by Christopher Stites on Unsplash
Dear Friends,
It is time for holidays and rest and refreshment. But any good holiday is helped by the expectation of good things when we return. A time away is sweeter if we know there is something worth looking forward to when our normal pattern of life resumes.
So it is that we announce our plans to do The Romans Course at St Luke’s this Autumn.
Last Autumn we did The Bible Course – 90 people bought the Handbook. Most of those people completed the eight sessions of the course and were glad to. We discovered in our Questionnaire follow-up that there was very positive feedback to the Bible Course and a clear enthusiasm to do the Bible Society’s second course: The Romans Course.
This September and October, we plan to do the Romans Course (first six sessions) in our Sunday sermons and midweek Fellowship Groups. The letter to the Romans is rather unique for the New Testament. Instead of focussing on the particular issues of the receiving churches, it presents a general overview of the most important themes in Christianity. From the start, the Apostle Paul addresses the big themes that make sense of life and which explain the main emphases of the Christian faith.
The titles of the first six sessions are these:
- August 30th Gospel: how can we become confident in our faith?
- September 6th Sin: what’s wrong with the world?
- September 13th Salvation: what’s so amazing about grace?
- October 11th Peace: how can we find rest in a stressful world?
- October 18th Freedom: how can we avoid negative cycles?
- October 25th Hope: what has God promised?
We may well complete the course by doing the remaining four sessions in January, but in September and October, we will get to grips with the above themes of the mighty chapters of Romans 1-8. Look out for how you can be part of the Romans Course at the end of the holidays.
The Book of Romans has been particularly influential in the history of Western Christianity.
In 386AD, Augustine of Hippo, a professor of philosophy, was about to experience a conversion to Christianity. He heard a child’s voice crying ‘Take up and read’. He opened his copy of Paul’s Letters at Romans. He turned to chapter 13 verses 13 and 14. He described it himself: ‘I did not want nor need to read any further. Instantly, as I finished the sentence, the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished’. Augustine was the greatest influence in the growth of the Western Church.
In about 1516AD, Martin Luther, a German Augustinian monk, was wrestling with a verse from Romans: chapter one verse seventeen. He hated the meaning as it had been taught him. Then one day his eyes were opened. Understanding that verse was the key to his understanding the Gospel: why Christianity is good news for everyone. He was the key figure in the European Protestant Reformation.
In 1738, in Aldersgate London, John Wesley went rather unwillingly to a meeting. Someone started reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. As he heard the words, his heart was ‘strangely warmed’. He wrote: ‘I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation’. It was the moment which gave momentum to the movement which transformed the Church in England for the following 150 years, and which is still so influential in the worldwide growth of Christianity. He was the key figure in the English Evangelical Revival.
The Book of Romans is the greatest and the most influential of the New Testament letters. The Romans Course can help us grasp its message. The Epistle to the Romans is not the easiest of books. Even more important that we glean its riches with the help of The Romans Course.
Could this be something to anticipate eagerly as you sit in the sun, or lie on the beach or enjoy some travel this Summer?
With my prayerful best wishes,
Rob