The Big Five
Foundational Values
The vision of Oasischurch is to become a community of people who embody the following values:
INTIMATE
Jesus Christ is at the heart of who we are, what we believe and why we do what we do. We want to be a community that gathers around him and lives out the kind of lifestyle that he so perfectly demonstrated. Not everyone within our community will personally put Christ in this central role, but will often share in the values he embodied. Nonetheless, intimacy with our Creator, through Christ, is at the very core of Oasischurch.
INCLUSIVE
We hope that anyone and everyone will fit in with us; our aim is to love people as much as they are open to being loved. We firmly believe that God loves and values every single human being, and has actively included everyone in his invitation to share in the promise of a new hope for a better future. Therefore we want to reflect this in welcoming each person we meet, whatever their story, beliefs or lifestyle.
INVOLVED
Far too often Christianity has been accused of being a 'nice set of beliefs' but of no practical good to the world. We believe differently; we believe in a faith that works and has the potential to change the world into the place God intended it to be. Individuals within our churches are encouraged to think about how, when and where their God-given gifts can become best involved in his world. This might be through working with others to deliver the transformational activities and programmes that the church runs in our areas, or through simply reflecting Christ in their day-to-day life. Our aim is to support everyone as they strive towards this.
INFLUENTIAL
We believe that the good news of our faith applies as much to social structures as it does to individuals. We want to be churches that are influential through being socially engaged, politically involved and globally aware. We are churches where we are honest enough to see that the world is not as it should be whilst being hopeful enough to believe it is not beyond redemption.
INTERDEPENDENT
We need each other. Oasischurch values diversity and encourages genuine, honest and vulnerable relationships. This is not an easy thing, especially in our challenging culture and varied locations, but we believe that to achieve real social change we need to be a committed community, however difficult or broken that might be in practice. We also acknowledge that we are one group of churches, within many thousands of churches, that make up the 'body of Christ', and we are keen to support and partner with others who are like-minded.