I have now been Lay Pastor at Hartley Wintney Baptist Church for twelve months and this is now my twelfth blog post.

Over the months, I have explored a number of questions in these articles, including:

• What do you truly value and believe in?

• What is a Christian?

• What is the Gospel?

• Why is Jesus sometimes called Immanuel?

• How can we know God?

• Why the empty cross?

I would now like to give you the opportunity to ask questions. In church services there is generally little, if any, opportunity to ask questions: although those of us who lead services would be happy to discuss any questions people have afterwards. Currently at the Baptist Church we are running an Alpha course on Monday lunchtimes which gives more time and space for asking questions and exploring answers together. But I would like to know what questions you are asking about life and faith – realising that not everyone can commit to a twelve week Alpha course.

This month we will all be enjoying the village festival on Saturday 13th June. As usual, a group of us from the Baptist Church will be there to chat with people and to hand out some small free gifts to children and adults. This year we will also be giving everyone the opportunity to ask a question in response to the following:

• If Jesus was standing here today what would you ask him?

In future editions of Contact, I will then look at what the Bible and Christian experience tell us about how Jesus might answer some of your questions.

In the Bible, we see that Jesus asked questions to his followers such as “Who do you say I am?” and he gave some of his great teaching in response to questions both from his followers and from those who were more sceptical such as “Is it right to pay taxes?” and “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

So please come to our stall at the village festival and bring your questions, however difficult or simple they may seem. And I look forward to trying to help you discover some answers.

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