Everything healthy is part of something bigger!

By Andy O'Connell and Mark Eley

Everything healthy is part of something bigger! That's a deep longstanding conviction for our family of churches – it's why we are in fact a family of churches – and it helps us understand the point of conferences. Mark and I had this conversation recently with our apprentices, and we thought it was worth sharing more widely.

Before we talk about conferences specifically, 'everything healthy is part of something bigger' is about more than conferences:

Seven Priorities for Student Ministry

By Andy O'Connell

Part of our founding vision for Oxford Community Church (the church was started in 1984) was to connect with and serve students, seeing them 'infected' (a term that hasn't dated well, post-pandemic!) with a passion for the Kingdom of God, and determined to spend their lives serving God wherever he would take them. After uni, students from both universities find themselves in different nations/workplaces/communities where they can play their part for God as his ambassadors, contributing to his plan for the renewal of all things. We want to play our part in helping that happen!

New life in the Garden Town

By Andy O'Connell

There's a church just north of Oxford that we're family with! Although its exciting, being actively part of a wider family of churches may be a new idea for some of you, so we want to tell the story of how we got there, and how relationships are sustained today.

Chapter 1: Oxfordshire

In the 1970s, UK churches were impacted by a new movement that came to be called both the ‘charismatic renewal’ and the ‘house church movement’. It placed emphasis on authentic community, participation in worship, spiritual gifts, and meaningful discipleship. 

Church: for the world, not (just) our parish

By Andy O'Connell

A quick read of the New Testament shows us a picture of a mobile and dynamic church. A church committed to each other, but also to making an impact in their towns and cities, and to the task of reaching the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. 

What We Did On Our Holidays

By Al McNicoll

We hope you're having a fantastic holiday so far! If you're a fresher who's investigating OCC, if you're away from home for a while, or if we don't have your address, then you won't have had the actual letter that we sent out about a week ago. What follows is the letter we sent out (minus the exciting goodies).

Al McNicoll