Leaflet of practical ideas for students at Holy Trinity Platt church (Manchester, UK) to use their summer to cultivate spiritual growth.

1. THIS SUMMER:
feast
your
soul

2. Summer is for feasting!
The exams are over. The sun is visible in the sky (sometimes). The barbecue has been
dusted off. The frisbees are out in force. This can only mean one thing: it’s summertime!
For most of us, three months lie ahead in which we don’t have to think too hard about uni
or college life and work. Summer is usually a time for visiting other places, home or away;
some of them places with people who spur us on in our relationship with God, but many of
them places without the good routines and good influences that we may have begun to
enjoy in Manchester. This leaflet is laced with practical tips to help
you cultivate spiritual growth this summer.
T
CH 1. GET STUCK IN
K IN TO A GOOD LOCAL CHUR
CAL CHUR CH 1. GET STUC It’s so important for
Christians to be in Jesus-loving, Bible-
believing church communities. If you don’t yet have a home
church that you can get stuck into this summer, do all you can to find one. Chat to one
of the leaders to see if they know of any good churches in your town, check out www.findachurch.co.uk, or
see UCCF’s guide to choosing a church at www.uccf.org.uk/resources/choosing-a-church.htm.
Quiet Times
‘Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, le) the house
and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.’ (Mark 1:35 NIV).
It’s very easy for the loss of routine that so o)en comes with the
end of term to have an adverse effect on our daily time alone
with God. Think about ways to help yourself take time out of
the day to read the Bible and pray. It might be worth teaming up
with a good Christian friend so that you can remind and encourage one another to keep on with
this over the summer months.
If you’re not sure where to start, the Good Book Company produce some helpful Bible-reading notes called
explore, which will guide you through your reading. Also, Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World is a
fantastic investment that will help you pray for God’s world more effectively and without switching off!
One great benefit of the summer is that it so o)en affords us the chance to have a longer and more
leisurely quiet time. One way that you might want to take advantage of this is by incorporating some
devotional reading into your quiet-time routine. Check out John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came
To Die (RRP £5, yours for £1 from the University of Manchester Christian Union: email chair@umcu.org.uk),
or A Godward Life by the same author.
There are some great books to help us think about how to make the most of our quiet times at any time of
the year. This summer might be an ideal chance to sit down and read through one of them. To help you
delve into the Bible itself, try How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth by Gordon Fee, or Beynon and
Sach’s Dig Deeper. If you’re keen to get your mind and heart around prayer, try Don Carson’s A Call To
Spiritual Reformation, which helpfully and accessibly examines the apostle Paul’s prayers. We all
sometimes struggle with quiet times. If that’s you just now, you may find When I Don’t Desire God
(also by John Piper) to be the right nourishment for your soul.

3. GOD EACH DAY 2. PLAN TO SPEND TI
ME WITH GOD EACH DAY 2. PLAN TO
Sermons
Have you ever thought about listening to (or watching) sermons more than just on Sunday at Platt? It may
surprise you to find that listening to gi)ed preachers expound the gi) of God’s Word is one of the most
enjoyable and accessible ways to feed your soul. Loads of them can be downloaded onto your MP3 player
for you to watch or listen to as you lounge by the pool on holiday or sit on that long train journey to see
Aunty Eileen. They’re especially useful if you are unable to attend church or just don’t fancy reading books.
Why not download some sermons by some of these guys?
Mark Dever and others (Capitol Hill Baptist Church)
www.chbcaudio.org or ‘Capitol Hill Baptist Church Audio’ at iTunes
Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church)
www.marshillchurch.org/sermonseries or ‘Mark Driscoll Audio/Video Channel’ at iTunes
Steve James, Pete Horlock, Paul Jump and others (Holy Trinity Platt Church)
www.plattchurch.org/sermons-on-line3.php
C.J. Mahaney and others (Sovereign Grace Ministries)
www.sovereigngraceministries.org/resources/audiomessages
John Piper (Bethlehem Baptist Church)
www.desiringGod.org or ‘Desiring God Sermon
TO
IENDS 3. KEEP IN
Audio/Video’ at iTunes
WIT H CHRISTIAN FR
. KEEP IN TOUCH
TIAN FRIENDS 3 Phone,
email or meet up with Christian
friends who will encourage you to grow in your faith this
summer. If you’re in Manchester on a Thursday evening, join in with Summer SBS
at 10 Aldwych Avenue (off Eileen Grove, opposite Platt) at 7:30pm. It doesn’t matter if you are only around
sporadically; come along anyway to hang out, chat, pray, gorge on magnificent cake and study the Bible together.
Websites
There’s a lot of stuff on the Internet that will fill your soul with spiritual junk-food, but there’s also an
increasing number of excellent websites and blogs full of thoughts that will nourish your soul. Here are a
few if you’re into that sort of thing:
Be Thinking (Apologetics) Sovereign Grace Blog
www.bethinking.org www.sovereigngraceministries.org/blog
Enjoying God (Sam Storms’ blog) Theology Network (from UCCF)
www.enjoyingGodministries.org/enjoying-God www.theologynetwork.org
Mainly for the girls among us:
www.girltalk.blogs.com
www.solofemininity.blogs.com

4. NS 4. REGULARLY READ GOOD BOOKS OR LISTEN TO GOOD SERMONS 4. RE
Summer Reading
Christians are always recommending good books.
Jesus’ friend John said at the end of his gospel, ‘Now
there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were
every one of them to be written, I suppose that the
world itself could not contain the books that would be
written.’ (John 21:25 ESV). And there are a lot of books
out that help us to know and understand our God
better. The summer months usually present all sorts
of opportunities to read, from gripping stories of God’s work in
the life of past Christians, to meaty thought-fodder on deep, theological questions. Get
your teeth into some of these:
E
CUISIN THICK, JUICY STEAK
CL ASSIC Christianity M. Meynell, Cross Examine
e
is, Mer od d
C .S. Lew er, Knowing G idence J. Stott, The Cross of Chris
t
k v
J. I. Pac y of Pro J. Piper, The Pleasures of
l, The Myster re Jewel of W. Grudem, Systematic Th
God
J. Flave oughs, The Ra ment J. Calvin, Institutes of th
eology
J. Burr tian Content e Christian Religion
Chris
FOOD FOR SIR AND MADAM
R.K. Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man
B. Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Woman
COO
J. Chapm KING FOR OTH THERS
FROM O the Almighty
an, Kno ERS FOOD adow of
R. Tice, C w and Tell the G e Sh e Stars
hr
V. Rober istianity Explore pel
os E. E lliot, Th n, Shining Lik Switchblade
e
J.I. Packe ts, God’s
Big Pict
d L. Brow Cross and th ndrews Seven
r, Funda on, T he he St A
mentalis ure D. Wilkers oxborough, T A Man in Chi
na
m and th
Word of e n & J. R Taylor:
God S. Piggi er, J Hudson
R. Ste
You can get the best prices for these books online, usually at Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk), ICM
(www.icmbooks.co.uk) or TenOfThose (www.10o)hose.com), especially if buying in bulk. For
an exhaustively-long list of good books to read, hit www.desiringGod.org and type ‘Recommend
Books’ into the search box in the top right.
H
NGS 5. DO HARD THINGS 5. DO HARD THINGS 5. DO HARD THINGS 5. DO
Finally, don’t get spiritually obese! Use the food that
you’re taking in this summer to exercise: talk to your friends and family about Jesus, and serve others in a radical way.
‘Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a
pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding
word of God ... And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’ (1 Peter 1:23,25 ESV)