Oasis Church Enfield
Craig and Rachel Bird lead Oasis Church Enfield in North London. Rachel also works as a Family Support Worker at the local Oasis Academy. Here, Rachel talks about how the two roles work together.
We chose to get involved in Oasis because we loved the idea of holistic mission. Not just preaching good news, but being good news - faith in action. We love the inclusion and ethos of Oasis and feel that it represents what Jesus was all about.
We live near Oasis Academy Enfield, in an area where income deprivation has a big impact on the families - it is in the worst 10% of sub wards in the country. The whole community suffers, but life is especially hard for children and their parents.
We cannot ignore the need in front of our eyes. We want to build a church that knows what it is
to love the people of our community as well as each other. We are not about weekly meetings
but believe church can be seen in the everyday. Supporting families is one great way to demonstrate this.
We are involved in supporting families on a one-to-one basis and work by linking the Academy's Family Support work to the Oasis Youth Team, the Oasis Children's Centre and the Oasis church. The church especially, is uniquely placed to fill the gaps between these different services. The church can also reach out to people in every way they need and can work with every member of the family.
Families do not seem to have a lot of opportunities to do things together without it costing money so we are looking to address this. We also have practical weeks when the church does something to serve the families and community we are working with. In December we made Christmas hampers for families who wouldn't have received a lot this Christmas.
There is also a lack of children's provision in the area, so with my Family Support 'hat' on, I have just started a pilot project on the estate, but it's Oasis Church that will lead on it.
So there are lots of opportunities to serve! We are a small church but that isn't a barrier to serving the community and it's that service that we believe is the key. Our vision is simple - to support people practically and to share the message of God's love by our actions. That's what Jesus did and that is what he calls us to do.