Church: a family, not (just) an event

By Andy O'Connell

Recently I came across this tweet, which could sum up pretty much all that needs saying on this topic: "Church is a Spirit-filled family, not a weekly experience."

Assistant Pastor Sanjay Mahtani often puts it this way: "OCC: Community is our middle name!" And I can sometimes be heard to complain, "We don't go to church, we are the church!"

Church: a community for others, not (just) for me

By Andy O'Connell

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to one of the leaders in our sister church Lifehouse (Bicester and Banbury) about the opportunities presented in Bicester as the town undergoes planned growth from 30,000 to 80,000 people, with 18,500 new jobs, by 2031.

We were talking about the sort of church we needed to be to respond to what God was doing in the town. In our conversation one phrase stood out starkly: "A church for those not yet there." 

10 dynamics of our church finances

By Andy O'Connell

At the church news and prayer evening this week, one of the things Steve Jones explained was some of the dynamics affecting our church finances. Below, and to respond to your questions, Andy unpacks that a little more, so if you have any more questions please ask him!

Andy O'Connell

5 reasons we value 'ultra-diversity'

By Andy O'Connell

I've just come back from 10 days in Africa, where I was serving in my role as 'Operations Director' for our international Salt & Light family of churches, at our biannual conference, this time in Nairobi, Kenya. I've seen again the value of diversity, which is what this blog is about! For more on what I learned from the conference, read my blog a few days ago.

Andy O'Connell

We're on a mission. From God.

By Al McNicoll

This is the second blog in a short series exploring what the elders believe God is saying to the church at the moment. A few days ago Steve wrote about faith for growth. Having had the privilege of sitting with the elders recently, I'm looking at how we can engage with the Summer of Mission 2018 because (unlike the Blues Brothers) we really are on a mission from God!

What comes to mind when you think about mission? Moving overseas? Crowds listening to a speaker in a stadium? Or your neighbour who you talk to about Jesus from time to time?

Al McNicoll

My name is Andy and I'm a Physicist

By Andy O'Connell

My name is Andy and I'm a Physicist. Confession over. Well, I was. In what now seems like a former life, I read Physics at Teddy Hall (Oxford) and then did a DPhil thesis in something that I now struggle to even understand the title of!

One of the prophetic images I've been carrying for the student ministry at OCC, is that of a flywheel. I mentioned this recently, and someone (maybe a humanities student?!) said 'What is a flywheel?', so I thought I needed to explain what I saw and what I think God is saying.