On Sunday 26th March, we had the second of our vision evenings. You can listen to the recording of the evening here.

We started off spending time reflecting on the feedback received from the first vision evening, where we reflected on three areas: our vision of 'Boundless Renewal', our community groups, and becoming a more intercultural church.

On 11 December 2022 Steve Jones introduced the phrase 'boundless renewal', as part of a longer talk available here. 

OCC is a church, founded on the Word and the Spirit, and committed to boundless renewal: that is, personal renewal that leads to renewal in the world around us.

A city like Oxford is for many is a stepping stone of education and early career development, with high population turnover. A city church like OCC will reflect this population turnover of the city. But with our 'apostolic vision' for God's world, we see that turnover as an opportunity, not a threat! 

This blog seeks to window into how OCC is approaching questions of racism, racial justice, and ethnic diversity, at this point in time. I'm writing as one of the elders and Assistant Pastors, but also about my own story.

Full disclosure: I’m a white man of a certain age. I grew up in the UK in the late 20th century. This is a tricky subject to get right. It’s not my ‘lived experience’. It's a current, very live, and controversial topic. Writers, commentators and activists use a lot of terminology that you need get your head around.

Last Sunday, Steve shared with us that God wants to punch holes in long-standing barriers... ethnic barriers, geographical barriers, and cultural barriers. One longstanding barrier in the city of Oxford is between different socioeconomic groups, expressed as 'town and gown', or 'rich and poor'. 

As a church, we know that Jesus' death on the cross was the birth of a new community, not joined by ethnic identity, economic status, or geographic location, but by our shared commitment to following Jesus! 

As we think about our city and church, there are 4 numbers affecting the city of Oxford - that is, the people of Oxford! - and therefore Oxford Community Church. Let these stats inform your praying as we move into 2020!

Last Thursday night, I got a phone call saying that the Department for Education would send emails to all free school applicants at 9.30am the following day (Fri 13) to say whether or not we had been invited to move forward on implementing our proposals. And, the successful applicants only would also receive a phone call before 9.30am.

So, I found it a little difficult to sleep on Thursday night, and found things with which to busy myself on Friday morning, before the phone rang at 9.15am – with the good news that we are going ahead with the vision for Tyndale Community School!