Each year, Oakham Baptist Church, Rutland, hosts a large community event for the entire town. It started with our celebration of our 250th birthday and has grown to become a central, annual event in the community.
Oakham Baptist (OBC) has missional links with Houston’s First Baptist church, and each year we are joined by a group of young people from Texas, which gave us the idea for the theme of this year’s event – a rodeo.
It’s important for us that all we do as a church is free for people to access. So everything at our rodeo was free, from activities to food. The line dancing and axe-throwing were popular, but a particular highlight was the mechanical bull. You can go to our Facebook page to watch a short video of me trying to ride it.
We gave away over 2000 burgers and hot dogs. And importantly, there was spiritual food. Throughout the day, around 3000 people heard the Gospel preached and raised praises to a God who loves them. No small feat for a town of only 10,000. Many gave their lives to Jesus, and we had the joy of baptising them into the body of Christ during the following weeks.
This year, OBC was joined by volunteers from the other churches in the area, and the events are widely celebrated by Churches Together in Oakham as one of their annual outreach activities. What will be next year’s theme? Who knows, but it will be a great chance to share the love of Jesus with those in the town and beyond.