Church isn’t a building; it’s a family of people who believe in Jesus. At Grace Church, we are a growing family of around 70 adults and 50 children, at many different ages and stages.
Sundays
As well as sharing our lives together in various ways during the week, the focus of our week is meeting together as a church family on Sunday afternoons.
We gather together for about an hour, to praise God and encourage one another with contemporary Christian songs, to listen to God as we hear a passage of the Bible explained and applied, and to talk to God in prayer, usually through one or two people leading these on behalf of the rest of us. There is also time to hear about news and events in church life.
Everything is always explained, and no one has to do or say anything that they don’t want to. There are Bible-based teaching and activities for children during the Bible talk, and once a month we have an ‘All Age’ meeting instead, with lots of interaction.
There’s no dress code – just wear whatever you’d normally wear on a Sunday afternoon. As you arrive, someone will be there to welcome you. At present we have to wear face coverings, but hopefully that will not be necessary fairly soon.
Why not come and see for yourself? Click here to find us.
If you want to listen to a Bible talk, here’s one from our series in Genesis, looking at our image and identity.
Grace Groups
Grace Groups are the place to get to know a few people better, to care for each other, to study and apply the Bible passage that has been taught on Sunday, and pray together. We normally meet in homes, or over Zoom, one evening a week – pick an evening that suits you!
Get in touch if you want to know more.
Children & Teenagers
All our children and youth – “Grace Kids” – have fun and interactive Bible teaching during the Sunday meeting each week. Pre-school children have simple Bible stories and concepts taught on a rolling 2-year programme. School-age children usually learn from the same passage of the Bible as the adults so that families can share together what they are learning. This is part of what it means to be “All of God’s people under all of God’s word together.”
We join up with another local church to run a weekly Youth Group for those of Secondary School age, and a have weekly midweek toddler group for under 5s (and their parents!)
Abi our Grace Kids’ Worker coordinates this growing area of our ministry, including working with John our Lead Pastor and Ash our Trainee Pastor to train and equip our team of Grace Kids leaders – all of whom have a valid DBS certificate and comply with our Safeguarding policy.
Men & Women
Men at Grace Church gather together in many different ways to encourage one another – social and sporting evenings, breakfasts, local annual ‘Men’s Conventions’. John our Lead Pastor and Ash our Trainee Pastor meet up 1-1 with as many men as they can.
Women at Grace Church gather together in a variety of different ways. We have weekly women’s bible studies which currently meet on a Tuesday and Wednesday mornings during term time, we also run a monthly discipleship and equipping group for women called Dwell. We have women’s breakfasts where we meet to encourage one another and think through relevant topics. Many of the women at Grace Church who are around during the day meet each week in homes to encourage one another in their Christian lives, bringing along any babies and toddlers, and a number of women meet with each other 1-1, or in small prayer groups. Abi our Women’s Worker coordinates our ministry among women.
We run marriage preparation, marriage refresher, and parenting courses.
20s, 30s & Students
If you are in your 20s/30s, perhaps at University or College, we have plenty of opportunities to be encouraged and equipped in your Christian life, including enjoying hospitality and social activities, as well as opportunities to serve on a Sunday and to meet with older Christians to help you develop as a disciple of Jesus.
The person who will particularly be looking out for you is Ash, our Trainee Pastor.
We have good links with the University of Gloucestershire Christian Union and UCCF
Special needs
We actively seek to make church life accessible to all, and make use of Special Educational Needs expertise within the church family. We have individuals in church life who benefit from extra support, and we do all we can to help anyone participate. The building at Dean Close is fully wheelchair accessible and has a T-loop. We are working towards making all text used on Sundays ‘dyslexia friendly’. We have Large Print Bibles available, and can provide Bibles in other translations too.
Vocation groups
Vocation Groups are where we occasionally gather subsets of the church family according to various life-settings – for example, education professionals, healthcare professionals, civil servants, stay-at-home-mums – to help think through the particular challenges and opportunities we face as Christians in our particular contexts.