Go round the room each giving in turn a one-sentence answer to the question: "What is the first thing you think of when you think of Jesus?"

You may like to repeat the exercise asking the question "How do you picture the man Jesus of Nazareth?"

1. Make a list of songs that focus on Jesus. What aspects of him are emphasized in your list? Can you think of aspects that are played down or hardly mentioned?

2. Read Colossians 1:11-20. As you read it make a note of the different statements it makes about Jesus. (Hint - I counted at least 16). Which do you most warm to? Which do you find most difficult?

3. Look at the list of different statements about Jesus. If you had to divide them into different categories, which categories would you use?

4. Imagine somebody reading this passage then turning to you and saying in stunned disbelief "How on earth can you say these things about a flesh-and-blood human being?" How would you reply? How do you think St Paul would have replied?

5. Paul says "He is the image of the invisible God" and "In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell". What does this mean in practice? What picture of God does it give us? Archbishop Michael Ramsey once said "God is Christ-like and in him is no un-Christ-like-ness at all". Apart from the bad grammar, do you find this statement helpful? Why - or why not?

6. According to this passage, what has Jesus done for us? Share what this means in your own experience.

7. According to this passage, what has Jesus done for the world/created order. If asked to produce evidence for this, how would you reply?

NB These notes have only picked up a few of the statements Paul makes about Jesus in this passage. If you prefer to focus on other statements that have not been mentioned, feel free! There is a lifetime's study here.