Norwich church begins befriending community
 2010: A Norwich church is set to launch a new befriending community to support local people with health issues. It follows on from other groups already launched to create mission communities centered around families and the over 55s.
Oak Grove Chapel commissioned its first mission communities back in September at its 75th birthday celebration. The first two were First Taste, a family centred café event, and Café 55, an event for the over 55s. Both mission communities have a team behind them that meet to plan, pray and serve together in their mission objectives.
The idea behind the mission communities is to move away from the more traditional form of church congregation into smaller clusters centred around a mission objective, such as a geographical area or an issue, such as families, youth or social justice issues.
The next mission community will be commissioned on Sunday 19 December called Just Us, a befriending community that will support people with many issues especially around health and form filling. Two more communities are planned for the spring, one around the 20-30 age group and the Oak Grove Youth Team is transitioning into a mission community giving greater opportunities for mission, leadership development for young people mentoring.
These initiatives continue to move the church forward on a journey to be a mission centred church that included the many and not just the usual few.
Click here to read more about the concept of mission communities.
New for 2011
Oak Grove is also launching a new Sunday evening programme for the new year. The meetings will start at 7.30pm and will alternate between discipleship school, prayer evenings and worship evenings.
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