The doors to the £5m home of one of Oxfordshire's fastest growing churches open on September 12.
The King's Centre in Osney Mead, Oxford, forms the administrative base for ten Oxfordshire Community Churches (OCC), which together have more than 1,000 members. It is also the home of the Oxford church.
The building is half-complete, and £3m is still needed.
The story behind the acquisition of the former Oxford Instruments warehouse two years ago and how £2m has been raised for the building by members -- with only a small amount coming from charities -- shows its support.
The site is being transformed into a modern headquarters, place of worship and -- pending the outcome of a planning appeal -- a community centre.
The King's Centre project director, the Rev Mike Beaumont, said: "We felt it was time to stop and say 'we're here and ready to serve the community'. We felt enough had been achieved to invite people to take a look."
Apart from Osney Mead, there are OCC churches in Blackbird Leys, Abingdon, Bicester, Chipping Norton, Cote, Didcot, and Wantage, with two in Witney. An 11th is planned for Carterton.
OCC dates back to the 1970s when the Rev Steve Thomas took over at Cote Baptist Church, near Witney.
He built links with young people who had broken away from a local Methodist church. From this, OCC was born, as part of what is today known as the 'charismatic renewal' of the 1970s.
Mr Beaumont said he believed his church, as part of the wider evangelical movement, had grown here because it offered a more relevant faith.
He said: "Everyone else gets this image of church being full of classic 'Mr Beans', singing old hymns and preaching. That's not relevant for everyday living. They see the power of God's Holy Spirit at work here. I think it makes them stop and think Christianity isn't what they thought it was."
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