Ministry is a wide reaching term
Ministry is about expressing the Christian faith and this is done both in a corporate and public way, but also in a private and personal way. The Diocesan vision is "Pray, grow, and serve the people of Devon with joy" - our ministry seeks to do just that.
How we express our ministry
Worship
First and foremost we express our faith in worship, where we come together to praise to God and to worship him with our hearts, souls and minds. As part of that worship we listen to passages from the Bible and then a sermon is preached to help us understand their meaning better and to relate the words to our daily lives. Each week sermons are posted on this site to enable people who couldn't attend church to listen in and to give an opportunity to listen again and to reflect more on what was said.
Prayer
We also express our Christian faith in prayer - and this can be public or private. Prayer is the bedrock of our Christian lives - its a way in which we seek to listen to God's promptings in our lives, to bring our concerns to him for comfort, encouragement and discernment, and a way in which we act as conduits of his love into the world. You'll find a prayer page on this site that offers inspiration for our prayer times, as well as a Thought for the Week.
Discipleship
No one is a "fully formed" Christian! We grow and learn in our relationship with Jesus all our lives. In the OVMC we have lots of small groups that meet each week, often in someone's home where there is time and space to ask questions, explore the Bible and other aspects of faith and be encouraged in our faith journey.
Service
Finally our faith is expressed in service. Lots of people do loving things in their community, but the basis of Christian service is trying to model the example Jesus gave us of being the servant of all. Our underlying reason for helping and caring for others is to reflect the love God has for each one of us.
