Last night we had the first of 2 vision evenings. You can listen to the recording of the evening here.

Part of a series of blogs on Renewing our Community Groups 

Father, Son, and Spirit, bound in love, welcome us into their community of love, which finds its expression in human – that is, broken, joyful, annoying, wonderous, difficult, surprising – communities of love.

We’ve just completed a short series on Sundays entitled “Renewing our Community Groups”. Community Groups have long been really, really important in the life of OCC! Community Groups are OCC's midweek groups, small groups, house groups, fellowship groups – whatever you want to call them!

“What are Community Groups for?”

Our Community Groups seek to be community in our transient, multi-cultural, 21st Century city. They love, serve, and reach the wider community, which could be those you live and work with, people in your local area, a certain demographic, or a group that you serve through a particular project.

Where and when are your Bible study groups? This is one of the most common questions we get asked by Christians new to OCC! 

Over the past few months, in response to prophetic words throughout 2020, we've been drawing near to God.

We've done this through our series on Identity and by exploring God's Heart - his heart for people, justice, mercy, family, and for all of us to play our part.

The idea of belonging to a church - or any other organisation for that matter - is increasingly alien in the world today. Tim Keller tweets: "Everyone says they want community and friendship. But mention accountability or commitment to people, and they run the other way." Krish Kandiah discerns a movement "towards a more eclectic individualistic spirituality.”

Why then does OCC hold to a habit of 'formal church membership'?

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!"

During the early days of lockdown, many of us who lead churches were frantically looking for advice and learnings from others as we sought to navigate a confusing season. We were asking what was the church supposed to be, and to be doing, and to be praying in this "unprecedented" season?

I've just got home from the first Cafe Church at Costa on the Cowley Road. There were about 25 of us, including 4 or 5 people who I'd not met before. It was great to meet new people, and a great venue to sit and talk about things that really matter.

The subject for the evening was 'Confidence', as in self-confidence and self-esteem. Now, I can confess that I went to the evening thinking that the subject would be of interest to others, but not something that felt tremendouly meaningful to me.