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| C O M M U N I T Y O U T R E A C H |
St. Andrew's Church attempts to be a blessing to the community in which God has called it to serve. We carry out our community service in a variety of ways. The obvious ways are through weddings, baptisms and funerals, but we are also involved in the community in other ways as well.
We support the Valley Cids (Christians in Derbyshire Schools) project by helping to staff the local Lighthouse charity shop. We also support the shop with our prayers, giving and donations. We are also involved in the community through our Ministers, along with the Baptist Pastor, visiting and attending local schools for assemblies each week, and running the Christian Union in Aldercar Community Language College. Every Monday in the local Baptist Church there is a lunchtime prayer meeting designed specifically to pray for the local community, and alongside this once a month (first Monday) we walk the streets of Langley Mill and Aldercar praying for the area. From these two ventures we believe we have seen great results, of an area beginning to turn around in terms of housing and industry. Our Church hall is used by a variety of local groups including Surestart, Homestart, Mothers Union and local Mums and Toddlers group. In addition to this we have Church members who give of their time voluntarily to serve as Parish Councillors, School Governors, in the Womens Institute and who serve the community in many other ways.
As a Church 10% of our annual income is given away to national and local charitable concerns. One of our local charities is the Padley Centre for homeless people in Derby. St. Andrew's is proud of its community involvement and seeks God's guidance as to how we may further be involved in this precious area. The Mission statement of the Church is "To know Christ and to make Christ known". Outreach is therefore very important to us. The main thrust of our outreach is centred on the Alpha Course, a simple, friendly, fun way to learn about the basics of the Christian faith. More information about this can be obtained on our Alpha page. In addition to Alpha we have also run other courses such as "An ordinary day with Jesus" and "Good News Down the Street" specifically for those unable to commit themselves to coming out in the evening. We have recently sent a mission team out to Romania and are working towards doing the same again in the near future. Photos of the the first Romania trip are on the gallery page. |