God’s heart for the nations runs through the Scriptures - from his call to Abram to be a blessing to the nations, through to Jesus Great Commission instructing us to make disciples of all nations, culminating in John’s vision in Revelation of a ‘great multitude from every tribe and tongue’ one day worshipping God.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to get caught up in God’s glorious vision and love for all nations of the earth. This is a conviction that has been at the heart of our S&L family for decades and during our Celebration in Oxford on June 14th, we will take time to explore again God's heart for the nations and our place in that.
What will the day include?
We will have a day of worshipping together the God of the nations, being shaped by his Word, and hearing from projects in other nations where we as a family of churches are serving and seeing God’s kingdom extend.
The children and youth will focus on God’s heart for the nations in their groups too as we pray the next generation will be caught by a heart to serve in the nations.
After lunch, there will be a range of activities for children, youth and adults - including games, a creative arts workshop and prayer for nations.
There will also be a seminar where we will get the chance to hear firsthand about what God has done and is continuing to do in the nation of Iran - a country so closed to the gospel and yet that has over many years seen God do remarkable things.
Among the stories we will hear in the morning is of an amazing move of God in a small village in the nation of Benin. Through a series of extraordinary events, friends from our S&L family in Western Africa have been invited to start a Christian school in what is normally a deeply anti-Christian environment. We will take an offering for the building of this school in the morning.
A great day together as a family of churches celebrating God’s great heart and love for the nations.
Children and youth
Primary aged children will be in the Cotswold Hall for their session.
All children age 0-18 (up to end of Y13) need to be pre-registered to enable us to prepare well, get large enough teams of leaders in place and enough resources. We also need a big team of volunteers to support our children’s and youth work, so please help if you are able.
Sensory and Additional needs
We are aware that Celebrations are a different environment, which can be challenging for our children and we want to be as inclusive of different needs and sensitivities as possible. Our desire is for Celebrations to be times in which all of our children, and their parents can be spiritually fed. With that in mind we are working on increasing our SEN provision. In order to do this we need parents to share information with us in the pre-registration forms - this allows us to plan and prepare for the right number of volunteers and resources.
We will have quiet spaces available, with sensory resources and activities. We have a couple of pairs of ear defenders available in group, but encourage you to bring these with you if they are helpful for your child.
Please register your children by Wednesday 10th June.
Volunteering
Our celebrations cannot run without a team of volunteers serving in a variety of roles. Please use the links below to sign up and offer your help! As well as welcome, refreshments and car parking we’ve added a site team, to be available from 8am for general helping particularly moving boxes of toys around and setting up tables, so please sign up if you are able!
Volunteers supporting children and youth will need to have a suitable DBS check and Safeguarding training.
Travel
In order to make the celebration accessible to as many as possible, parking spaces for those who need them (e.g. you have disability, mobility issues, elderly passengers or lots of small children) can be booked in advance using this form.
The remainder of our 90 car parking spaces, as well as 70 on-street spaces on Osney Mead are available on a first-come-first-served basis, with no time limits at weekends.
We also encourage 'green' travel by foot, bicycle and public transport, TKC is a 10 minute walk from Oxford city train station, via the towpath through Osney Island. There are also sheltered bike racks available.
The main entrance can be found through the large gates to the right hand side of the carpark.
For more information please see our travel page.
The King's Centre itself, the Osney Mead estate and Botley Road are not impacted by the new congestion charging arrangements