| Freshers' Feast: All freshers are invited to join us for a three course meal, a short talk about Christianity and a chance to meet others from different colleges. It's on Saturday of 0th week (8th October) 2011, at St. Aldates church at 7pm. |
University can be really exciting, or a massive challenge. For many Christians, university can be a time of rapid spiritual growth, where they mature in their relationship with Jesus Christ. For others, university can be a massive challenge, as they leave the safety of their own home and church. Life can seem difficult, particularly with pressure to conform socially and academically. It is essential therefore to settle down and commit to a single local church as soon as possible, because it will nurture, protect and encourage you through university, and give you opportunities to contribute to God's family in Oxford.
One of the awesome things you'll quickly find out about Oxford is that there are lots of great churches around, full of people who love Jesus and want to see his name honoured. The Christian student needs to attend a church which is committed to the gospel and to obeying all Biblical teaching, if he or she wants to grow as a Christian.
Another great asset to Oxford is the presence of college Christian Union (CU) groups who meet during the week. They provide a smaller, family group of like-minded people. The CU runs alongside local churches, like their branches into specific student communities. The Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (OICCU) is the title for these unified college groups and we all meet together on alternate Wednesdays to worship God. It is important to get stuck into a college CU as that is the best way you can serve your church straight away. It also provides a small missional community which you can use to reach out to your friends in college. You can find out about your college group, and get in touch with your college reps here.
Alongside church and CU are other Christian groups who focus on the extra-curricular side of Oxford student life. A great example is Christians in Sport (CiS) which you can read about below. They help equip you for talking to teammates about Jesus and as you, with God's help, live a distinctive life there.
Some of Oxford's churches are listed below, together with a map, and their descriptions of themselves:
St. Aldates is a vibrant church at the heart of Oxford with Sunday services at 10.30am, 6pm & 8.15pm, see www.staldates.org.uk.
For more than a century, St Aldates has aimed to be a home away from home for the many students of this city. The student community at St Aldates provides a place to belong, grow and to shape your world for Christ. 'Student Night' on Thursday nights is the weekly gathering for undergrads, we start with a meal together at 7pm before having a time of worship, exploring the Bible and prayer. Feel free to just turn up or email students@staldates.org.uk for further info.
We also run the Alpha course typically on Tuesday nights for 8 weeks during term time. Email alpha@staldates.org.uk to sign up and bring your friends.
St Andrew's is an evangelical Anglican church whose strapline is 'Growing Christians, Resourcing Mission', so whether you have been following Christ for years and are looking for a fellowship where you can thrive, or you're just exploring who Jesus is and what the Christian faith is all about, we want you to know that there's a place for you here. Our Sunday services vary a bit in style, but at all the Bible will be read and preached as God's word. The 9.30 is for all the family with children's groups. The 6pm is probably the most 'user friendly' for students. We are also very active throughout the week, with activities for all ages. On Thursday evenings our 20's and 30's group, which we call Discuss, meets for supper (at 7pm), fellowship and Bible study. Whatever you come to, our prayer is that you will encounter God and grow in your knowledge of Him.
All our activities are listed on our website: www.standrews.org. All our details can be found on the 'Contact Us' page. We look forward to meeting you soon.
We would love the opportunity to welcome you to St. Ebbe's. Nestled in the heart of the city, we meet in a historic building but serve a vibrant community of children, students, young professionals, families and those more mature!
At the heart of our church is a desire to honour God, to devote ourselves to corporate worship, to study the Bible in community, to grow in prayer, and to reach out in love to our city (and the world!) as we live out and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
Serving students is a special focus of our church and there are many exciting ways for you to get involved and feel at home in the church family, knowing Jesus more and being equipped to live for Him. Most students do this by coming on Sundays at 11.45am (some come later at 7pm) and Thursdays at 7.30pm for our 'Focus' small groups for students. Focus provides a fantastic opportunity to get to know other students, eat a home-cooked meal and study the Bible together.
Phil Jack and Sharon Mac lead our Student Team and would love to hear from you if you think that St. Ebbe's may be a place where you can make your home during your time in Oxford. You can arrange to meet up with Phil or Sharon - e-mail them at phil.jack@stebbes.org.uk, sharonm@stebbes.org.uk or check out our website www.stebbes.org.uk
Elim Church is a multi-cultural family church with a mission "To know, show and share God's love"...to Oxford, Oxfordshire and the world beyond. We are a church that wants to make a difference in the community where God has placed us and in the world far beyond it too! We believe that our job is to co-operate with God to see his kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So much talent often goes untapped in churches. So if you're looking for a church where you can make a difference not just make up the numbers then why not look us up. We'd be glad to hear from you.
Sunday morning service: 10.30am - 12 noon approx. The emphasis here is on worship and sound Bible teaching, always relevant, sometimes humorous! Followed by refreshments. Find out more at: http://www.oxfordelim.com
Emmanuel Church is an exciting place to be. Our goal is to be a vibrant, growing church, making disciples and demonstrating the Kingdom of God. We are committed to enjoying God, welcoming the Spirit, believing and living out Biblical truth, and winning others to Jesus. We're part of the Newfrontiers family of churches.
We love and value students and believe you have a massive part to play in the mission God has given us. We want to help you discover and develop your gifts and release you into opportunities to use them to build God's Kingdom and his Church. Oxygen, our weekly student event, is on Sundays at 8pm. It is designed to help equip you to live radically for Jesus.
For more information see our website: www.emannueloxford.org. Sundays: 10.30am and 8pm, Magdalen College School, The Plain, OX4 1DZ. Student contact: Dave and Jude May, oxygen@emmanueloxford.org, 07841334076 or 07540248201. Church Office: Second Floor, 1-4 The Plain, Oxford, OX4 1AS.
Magdalen Road Church is a diverse, welcoming, lively family church in East Oxford. Our vision is to delight in God and display his glory to East Oxford and the world. We gather some students but also a wide variety of people from East Oxford and beyond.
We encourage students to be actively involved in their CU but also aim to be a church family within which students can thrive. Our Sunday morning meeting (10:30) has a family feel where we praise God, hear from his Word and encourage one another for the week ahead. Our Sunday evening meetings at 7pm are being re-vamped in 2011/12 - there will be great Bible teaching from John's gospel as we consider who Jesus really is, good music and food each week from 6pm.
We'd love to see you! There are plenty of ways you can serve with us and we encourage students to be fully involved in the church community.
Check out our website for more information: www.mrc-oxford.org, e-mail the church on admin@mrc-oxford.org, or speak to Peter or Dan on 01865 245887.
Oxford Living Word Fellowship is a dynamic multicultural church based in the heart of the historical city of Oxford. Our aim is to bring God's Living Word with its revelation of Hope, Healing and Restoration to our community. The church mandate is to bring about transformation, empowerment and influence in our community. We believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour and in the demonstration and manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit.
We meet at the New Road Baptist Church, Bonn Square, Oxford on Sundays from 2-4pm. For more information call 07506645212, 07577887551, and 01865240286 or visit our website www.oxfordlivingword.org.uk
Oxford Community Church (see http://oxford.occ.org.uk/content/students) is a vibrant and energetic church. It is home to many students who have found family and enjoy freedom in worship, inspiring and challenging Bible teaching and a missional focus. We have a meeting on Sunday morning at 10.30 at which a variety of ages and cultures gather together to hear God's word, to pray and to worship. Students are very important at Oxford Community Church, and we are seeing a new generation of students supported, trained and sent out to see God's kingdom come. During the week, we run fusion groups (well you will actually!). These are our missional small groups, which are at the heart of our life together. We like to think of them in the following way:
Missional - We don't want to retreat from uni into church meetings, but to take our wonderful, prayerful, transforming, truth-speaking Christian community and plant it right in the middle of uni life! So at the heart of what we do are a bunch of missional communities, each with a vision to reach a specific group within the student world.
Authentic - Sharing life is fundamental to true community. We are cultivating a caring, supportive, accepting, trustworthy, honest community, where you are free to be who you really are.
Innovative - The gospel hasn't changed but the ways that we communicate it and connect with people needs to adapt to the situation God has placed us in. We have a culture of training up innovative leaders who will creatively engage with this challenge, combining our own God-given passions and talents with the people he gives us a heart for.
Prophetic - God is a speaking God. His will isn't supposed to be something we can never figure out. Rather, with our eyes on the Scriptures and our ears tuned to the Holy Spirit, we encounter His guidance, discipline and encouragement and we find Him thrusting us out in faith exploits that we may never have considered or thought possible.
A large number of students and young adults attend Wesley Mem each week and are an integral part of the Church family. If you are a student or young adult you are very welcome to join us for Sunday lunch after the morning service during Oxford University term time.
A wide range of activites happen for students every week during term time; Bible Study (with food) Thursdays at 6pm and Prayer Breakfast on Fridays at 8am. There is also a contemporary and creative service on the first Thursday of each month at 7.30pm. For information about our other events please visit our student society website www.johnwesleysociety.org.uk
Many of our students and young adults also attend Evening Worship at Cowley Road Methodist Church on Sundays at 8pm. For more information go to crew.cowleyroad.org.uk
Woodstock Road Baptist Church is an evangelical church located in north Oxford - not far from St. Hugh's. We rejoice in being deeply loved by God and we seek to love Him, each other and those around us. We would be delighted to provide a church family for you during your time here. We seek to integrate students into church life: to learn from those who are older and help those who are younger. Some of our students have met up regularly with an older Christian to talk, study and pray together. Many have also served in areas of church life such as youth work, music, outreach and so on. There is a free lunch for the whole church after each Sunday morning service - a great chance to be fed and get to meet others. There is the opportunity to join any of the small groups that the church operates and many of the students get together every week after the Sunday evening service for coffee, cake, discussion and prayer.
Check us out on a Sunday at 10.30am/6.30pm, and see the website for more details (www.wrbc.org.uk) or contact Andy Robinson (andy@wrbc.org.uk; 07933 767690).
Christians in Sport exists to reach the world of sport for Christ in Oxford University.
The Oxford CiS group is part of a national organisation that aims to reach the world of sport at all levels with the good news of Jesus through praying for our team-mates who don't know Jesus, playing and living in a way that honours God, and then trying to say something of our faith.
We meet at 8am on a Wednesday morning to pray for our teammates and each other, spend some time opening the Bible and looking at how we can better share our faith in the sports culture and have breakfast together, finishing in time to get to 9am lectures. We also send regular e-mails and run sport-related events to which we can bring our friends to hear the Christian message, in order to help Christian sportspeople across the university to share their faith, so get in touch even if you can't make a Wednesday morning.
Christians in Sport looks to support the local church and OICCU in reaching the huge number of people involved in sport - we are not a substitute for either - so if you love sport and are passionate about sharing your faith, then get involved!
E-mail Jessie Flowers on jessiejoyflowers@hotmail.co.uk or Mike Harris on michael.harris@new.ox.ac.uk
Why not also check out www.christiansinsport.org.uk?
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"Being a Christian student at Oxford University is an amazing experience but it can be tough at times to get the right balance between academic commitments, socialising and Christian activities, so it is important you choose the right activities for you. Three Christian activities that I found particularly interesting and encouraging during my first year in Oxford, along with going along to Church on Sundays, were the Christian Union (CU), Christians in Sport (CiS) and Focus. I cannot pretend that I attended all three, every week, every term; however, when I was able to attend, they were great at helping me to put my Christian faith at the centre of everything that I did. I found the Christian Union particularly useful as it meant I got to know other Christians in my college and we subsequently could encourage each other, whilst being accountable to each other. The Christian Union also provides many opportunities for evangelism through College and University events. Christians in Sport (CiS) was great as it meant I met other Christians who had a similar love for sport and love for God. Through Bible studies and prayer, you learn how to share God's love and shine God's light on a sports field, in training and during initiations. Furthermore, CiS runs events that are great fo inviting non-Christian teammates so they can hear God's word, play sport and meet other sportsmen from various other Oxford sports teams. Focus is a weekly Christian event that is run by St. Ebbe's Church and takes place on Thursday evenings. Along with the fact that you get an amazing meal for £2.50, Focus was an important event in my weekly schedule as it meant I was able to get to know a group of people who could encourage each other in our Christian faith by reading the Bible together and praying for each other. I am glad that I attended these three weekly Christian events as they all helped with different aspects of my University life and encouraged me to put God first in everything I did. If you are a Christian who wants to strengthen your relationship with God, tell your friends and teammates about your Christian faith and meet other Christians who have the same passion and interests as you, then it would be great if you came along to the Christian Union, Christians in Sport and Focus." -- Josh Manhire, Hertford, Second Year |
| "During my second year at Oxford I was a CU rep at Worcester College as well as doing children's work at St Aldates with 10-12 year olds, and found both really rewarding and challenging in different ways. College CUs can be fairly close-knit communities, like your family, because you live very near each other and know all the same people. It can be a great place for fellowship and making some of your closest friends, so I found being a rep was less like being a leader and more like serving the group by doing the organisation, which really keeps you in touch with what's going on. Quite a few people in OICCU go to St Aldates, which was great, but I found that after my first year in the church I barely knew anyone but students, so I volunteered to be on the children's ministry team. It was a really good way to meet some of the kids at Aldates, who I otherwise wouldn't have come into contact with, and also the other leaders who I worked with. Leading Bible studies at CU or children's church sessions at Aldates were both a bit scary at first, but I soon found the skills were transferable: both require simple explanations, fun activities to grab the audience's attention, and raising one's voice to be heard above the giggling!" -- Rosie Liebermann, Worcester, Third Year |