Seeking the Kingdom

In the third phase of our discipleship process, we aim to be disciples who will seek God's Kingdom here on earth.

We aim to seek the Kingdom through serving (serving our church family or our mission) and mission (local mission to our neighbours and working with neighbourhood, city and world Mission Partners).

As we serve, step out in faith and use our spiritual gifts, we will encounter God in new and deeper ways. Similarly, for those who we reach, we pray in time they will encounter God and start the discipleship process themselves.

Local Mission to our Neighbours

Over many months, in prayer, we have been drawn to the verse ‘love your neighbour as yourself' (Luke 10:27) and challenged to ‘open our doors for hospitality and healing’. 

We think that means making space and time to welcome a stranger. We are aiming to offer fellowship, food, warmth and shelter (hospitality). We'll be praying for healing and wellbeing and the transformation we see when someone invites the Lord into their lives or is filled with the Holy Spirit (healing). We're prioritising building ongoing relationships through local mission to our community, school and university.

What is Open House?

We believe God is asking us to create an ‘Open House’ ready to receive our neighbours, whether they are passers by, strangers, or friends (we hope to be open 9-11.30am Monday - Thursday & 2.30-4.30pm Monday - Wednesdays this Autumn). But what does this look like to our neighbours?

'Imagine an Open House. As you approach the West doors of the church, hoping to pick up some food you heard about on Instagram yesterday, you find them open and are welcomed in.

To the right you see the Food Hub overflowing with food delivered that day from the Big Difference, a local charity who distribute unwanted but good food which supermarkets and chain cafés are throwing away. You are encouraged to take as much or as little with you to bless yourself and your household. Anyone is welcome to fill their bag.

To the left in the hospitality area and spilling out into the central aisle are friendly faces in the pop up café, students studying with a coffee, a mum sharing a piece of cake with her toddler and friend.  You are grateful for an opportunity to sit out of the rain and have a hot drink and to chat to one of the Open House Pastors who invited you over. 

As you chat you see across to the front of the church in the front of the south aisle and under the Tower, a space to light a candle. You ask the Open House Pastor what the people are doing and realise that some are being still, some praying. You collect a card from the table with a prayer and pastoral email address on before you wander over to see what’s on the walls before you head home.'

Imagine an open house which offers referrals to the pastoral team and to counselling, a central hub for prayer walkers to start and finish and to which they can invite those they meet during the day. By morning there is a dedicated time of prayer in our House of Prayer, by evening an Alpha group meets for those wanting to know more. Imagine an open house in the heart of the community.

Like to join in? 

Of course we can't do everything from day one. We'll need to build up slowly. But we’d love to hear from anyone in our church family who’d like to be part of offering hospitality and healing to those around us through our Open House. Perhaps you have the gift of hospitality, intercession or evangelism? There are many ways to get involved; serving in the pop up cafe, collecting food from Big Difference, supporting the food hub, creating prayer resources in the sacred space, talking to visitors, praying onsite, prayer walking within our local community, or supporting Alpha in Open House on Tuesday evenings (kitchen or front of house team).

We hope to find enough regular volunteers to have three people covering each session in three distinct roles:

• Session Supervisor who ensures everything is safe and well for all volunteering and all our guests using the pop up café, food hub or sacred space within Open House. The Session Supervisor would lead by example in how to welcome and love our neighbours and be the main point of contact with me regarding feedback.
• Session Supporter who is able to help practically with tasks or chat to people as appropriate.
• Open House Chaplain who is there primarily to pray, befriend, and pray for our guests as appropriate and help refer on to the pastoral team and prayer line.

We hope each session will have these mini teams within a large Open House team, where we can work together using each of our gifts to bless our neighbours.

If you would like to find out more about any of the roles please click on their names above to read the role description and guidance. If you would like to volunteer for one of these roles or would like to offer some time to Open House, please click here to complete this simple form.

Kelly Worthington

Executive Pastor