Reaching out to other people with the good news about God is something all followers of Jesus are called to do. We call this evangelism, and at its heart are our personal stories and the experiences we share. We may not all be called to be evangelists, but we are certainly called to witness to those around us about our own expererience of faith.

Like all Church of England churches, Pip n Jay has a defined "parish" area close to its building. Most of our members, however, do not live in the parish, and spend most of their time with work colleagues, friends and family elsewhere. So we have two areas of focus for our outreach - the parish and our lives of personal witness.

Parish focus

As we work out how to serve our parish, there are prayer meetings about once a month where we discuss ideas and initiatives, and seek God's guidance in these matters. If you would like to join in, please contact Andy Macpherson or look out for the meetings in our What's On guide. They are exciting times filled with opportunity. A number of church members recently started living in The Dings, part of our parish, and they host small groups which welcome anyone to join them as they grow closer to God, their neighbours and each other. You can get more information from Greg Sharples and Bern Leckie. For more about our area, find our latest stories here.

Focus on our personal witness

We are - praise God - all very different in the way we communicate our faith with others, but there are some tools we have found useful to share to help in that process.

We re-launched the Alpha course at Pip n Jay in 2008, and it proved to be hugely rewarding for both the team and the guests who were part of both the spring and autumn courses that were run in the main church building. Alpha is a course aimed at new Christians and non-Christians who want to find out more about Christianity. It covers a basic overview of the Christian faith during the 10 weeks and a weekend away. People can come to find out about the Christian faith, enjoy dinner together and discuss burning questions in informal small groups. Approx 100 guests came across our two Alpha launch dinners (Dec 07 / Sept 08), and many of those who came joined the subsequent 10 week courses. It was really exciting to see the impact that the course has had on the lives of many of those who attended the course, and having made commitments to follow Jesus several are now involved in Pip'n'Jay church life.

Some of Pip n Jay's Small Groups, spread across Bristol, are using a "pre-Alpha" style course called "Journeys - Exploring Faith in the 21st Century". If you have any questions or would like to join in with this, please contact Andy Macpherson.

Aside from these organised activities, most of our witness is informal and unpredictable - we are just sharing what we see God doing around us, and this varies from day to day. You can see some of our latest stories here, and you are welcome to join us to share your experiences, your questions or simply some time to look and see for yourself whether you find God working at Pip n Jay.