As we look towards a new season at The Oak, our theme for the year ahead is Journeying Together. This has come out of prayer, individually and together as a leadership team, recognising how God is already moving, and seeking how He wants to shape us in this next season. 

We want this to be more than a theme for a year. We want it to run through our preaching, our teaching, our prayer, our discipleship and the way we live alongside one another in community.

We are all on a journey, but not there yet!

Every one of us is on a journey with Jesus, whether we've walked with him for forty years, four months or four days.  None of us have arrived. We're still being formed, still being led and still learning to become more like him. Here at The Oak, we are seeing more new Christians among us than we have for many years, alongside people exploring faith and asking questions about Jesus. We love that. Journeying Together is for every one of us, whatever the road has looked like so far.

And we know where this journey is ultimately heading. We were made for eternity with God. Hebrews describes people who saw their true home from a distance and lived their lives looking towards it. Keeping our eyes fixed on where we're going changes how we live today.

We weren't made to journey alone

There's a picture in Revelation of an innumerable crowd from every nation, people and language worshipping God together. It's a beautiful picture of where we're heading, but it also shapes the kind of church we want to become now: different people, different stories and different backgrounds, following Jesus together. That isn't always easy.

Ecclesiastes reminds us that two are better than one and that a cord of three strands is not easily broken. We've recently reflected on a helpful picture of people walking together on a hillside. Some could sprint ahead, while others need to move more slowly. But if we're genuinely journeying together, we don't simply walk past one another. We choose to walk alongside each other, sometimes adjusting our own pace so that nobody is left behind. That's what love looks like.

This year will hold highs and lows. There will be prayers that seem to be answered almost immediately and others where we find ourselves waiting. Some will experience breakthroughs, while others will walk through storms. Journeying Together means being present in all of it.

Who are you journeying with?

This theme also becomes very personal. Who has God placed around you? Is there someone He is putting on your heart to get alongside, encourage, pray with or disciple? Perhaps this is the season to form a Life Group with someone and intentionally journey together. Or perhaps a Community Group is the right next step for you. If you’re looking for a place to build friendships, share life and grow together, we’d love to help you find the right Community Group.

Discipleship at The Oak isn't simply about attending courses or listening to teaching. We disciple each other. This means sharing life, eating together, encouraging one another, praying together, challenging each other, opening scripture together and pointing one another towards Jesus.

So part of our invitation this year is simply to ask: Who am I journeying with, and who is journeying with me?

Bringing others with us

Journeying Together doesn't stop with ourselves or our church community. When Jesus first gathered his disciples, the invitation was simple: come and see. We get to extend that same invitation to the people around us.

That happens through friendships, workplaces, school gates, and the everyday places God has put us. We want to become increasingly aware of who God is bringing across our path and where He is inviting us to carry his presence and hope.

This takes us up, in and out: deeper with God, deeper with one another and outward to the people and communities around us.

There's something particularly significant about this season for The Oak.

Our name comes from Isaiah 61, where people who have experienced brokenness and loss are comforted, restored and described as “oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.”

From the beginning, part of our DNA has been to be a church where people from every background can belong, encounter Jesus and experience his restoration. We're grateful that our church family is becoming increasingly diverse, including people who have faced significant storms in life. We are one church family, with different stories, learning from and walking alongside one another and we hope this year helps us to Journey Together as one family.

A few things to look forward to as we head into a new season:

• A preaching series throughout the year, with different destinations but focusing on Journeying Together;
• New bible study days, called Around the Table where we can learn from God’s word together;
• Journeying Well Course: A short internal course exploring biblical foundations, trauma, addiction and healthy boundaries, helping us love and support people well;
• New Adult Socials from September onwards;
• Together 26 Weekend Conference in October; welcoming Jon Swales to share teaching and learning from his ministry and experience of walking alongside people on the margins in Leeds
• Our kids and youth will be unpacking Journeying Together also this year, with some amazing Youth content from Newday 2026 - How to be Human, and our kids journeying through scripture on Sundays.

Journeying together means making room for each other, recognising that we will all experience seasons when we need others beside us. So this year, our encouragement is simple: Walk closely with Jesus, walk closely with others, and bring others along!