Our services and many of our meetings end with a blessing (or benediction). The words are so familiar that we can find our minds wandering even as we speak them, but this is a powerful thing that we are doing. We are reminding each other that as we part, we do not leave alone - we go in the company and the strength of the risen Christ.

This week in our Alpha course, we heard a testimony from a man who became a Christian while serving a jail sentence in Britain for having committed multiple violent crimes. His life has now been turned around. Since his release, he has devoted himself to reaching out to other men in prison - sharing his life story and the good news of the gospel. He has a stable, loving family and seems to be a completely new person.

A W Tozer once said that the "most important thing about us is what comes into our mind when we think about God". That's quite a claim! Author J B Phillips obviously felt that we were failing in this most important task when he wrote a book in the 1950's called "Your god is too small". Over the next four Sundays we are going to be using some of Phillips' ideas to help us notice where we have settled for a shrunken God - a caricature of the real Person.