The Church On Oakwood News: Nov 2018

What a great summer we have had with planned summer activities such as holiday club and activity days, along with God blessing us with the amazing summer weather that allowed us to host picnics on the park each Wednesday afternoon during the summer holidays for all ages and family units. It is amazing what conversations can happen through offering a packet of crisps, a bottle of water and a football to young people already on the park.

We had the same response through being hospitable also at the Oakwood Festival in July, through offering fliers, Bibles, Diary of a Disciple mini-books, resources, biscuit decorating, sweets, goody bags and a chance to win a hamper for free. There is nothing more special than showing God’s love to people through blessing them with freebies and engaging in conversation and connecting them to the church through things on offer.

Our Monday Fellowship group for retired people, who meet on a Monday afternoon, to listen to guest speakers, go on trips out or host games afternoons following a pre-planned programme of events each week, have just celebrated their 25^th birthday. This is not only a big occasion due to amount of years the group has been running, but a celebration as a few of the founding members are still in attendance 25 years on!

In September, because of the age of the young people attending on a Sunday morning, we have started a group for youth on 2^nd and 4^th Sundays of the month alongside JAM who is for 3-11’s. The name is yet to be confirmed, but it has been a blessing in bringing one young person back to church who hasn’t been in a while and has made others come more regularly. The young people are also being encouraged to play a bigger part in the church family currently giving out books, welcoming people and taking the collection during a Sunday morning service and serving drinks, helping with crafts and leading songs and prayers during Messy Church.

As we head into winter, we are finalising the plans for Christmas and ways in which we can bring light into the darkness through sharing the gospel message with our local school, wider community and families connected and those not yet connected to the church.

Becky our Family Worker has found something that we will be using again at Christmas this year and would encourage others to sign-up and order this FREE resource to give out to children in your church or local community. ‘The First Christmas’ is a great book that is written by Gemma Willis (writer of Diary of a Disciple) and FREE from the Scripture Union website. This is a great gift to give to children to share with their families at Christmas.

The Church on Oakwood News: March 2018

We have had a very busy Christmas with schools and nurseries using the church to host their Christmas performances. We offered Years 5 & 6 at a local school an ‘Experience Christmas’ for them to gain a deeper understanding as to what Christmas is really all about and why it is celebrated so much in the Church. Our Christmas Messy Church was very well attended, along with our Advent Reflections and Carol Service with our Catholic partners (and the Deanery Youth Choir).

As a Church, we are starting to set a Church Vision. Rev’d Neil has set dates in our diaries of afternoons for the Church to come together and pray, reflect and listen to what God is saying about His Church, the local community and the way forward. Both sessions so far, have been put together well – offering different prayer stations with a focus or just space for personal prayer. Both sessions have been very well attended and well received. The last session is in a few weeks.

We are already approaching Easter at a great speed, already a number of weeks into Lent. Again, we are offering a Lent Course from 7:30pm every Tuesday evening in the Church. The last session will be Tuesday 20th March.

A local School are again wanting to ‘Experience Easter’ with us, of which we thank God for this opportunity to look deeper into the aspects of the Easter Story and input into these children’s lives getting across to them how much God loves them and why He did what He did!

Becky, our Family Worker has completed her Certificate in Family Ministry and in May will complete the Aurora Certificate in Children’s Ministry.

Our Messy Church continues to grow, as we welcome new families into this fresh expression way of being Church. We meet 3rd Saturday of each month 11am-1pm. (All welcome!) A great number of our Wednesday afternoon toddler group families are starting to attended Messy Church. This year our Toddler Group (Walkers & Talkers) is 5 years old. We will be celebrating in style with a HUGE cake and a party!

We have a lot to look forward to with the Good Friday Family Activity Morning, Good Friday service led jointly with our Catholic Partners and our Easter Celebration. We have the Oakwood Festival (Gala) in July, holiday club and events on the park over the summer.