Four miles away, and a lift on Sundays
There’s no bus from campus on a Sunday — so if you’d like to come to church, tell us where you’re staying and someone will pick you up and run you home afterwards. No charge, no catch, and no obligation to come again.
A small church in the village down the road
Vale Community Church is a Baptist church in Marston Moretaine. About forty of us meet on Sunday mornings in a school hall — we don’t have a building of our own, and we rather like it that way.
We should be straight with you: we’re not a big church with a band and a coffee bar. If you’ve come from somewhere much larger or much livelier back home, this will feel different. What we are is a group of ordinary people from quite a few different countries who eat together a lot and are trying to follow Jesus.
And we should be clear about what we are and aren’t. We’re a village church. Marston Moretaine is our patch and that’s where our energy goes — we’re not trying to be a university church or run a student ministry four miles up the road. So you wouldn’t be joining a student group. You’d be in a room with toddlers, teenagers, people in their eighties, and a few of us somewhere in between.
But students aren’t a side project to us either. Helping people who are passing through to grow, and sending them on well, is part of what we think we’re for — more on that below. And we want to keep becoming a church that looks like the world rather than like one village street. You wouldn’t be an exception here; you’d be part of what we’re hoping for.
Come once and see. If it isn’t for you, we’ll still give you a lift home, and you’d be welcome at the meal on a Tuesday any week you like.
How it works
Tell us which Sunday
Email cranfield@valecommunitychurch.com with your name, where you’re staying and the Sunday you’d like to come. A real person reads it — usually Dan or Annie — and we’ll come back to you the same day.
We meet you at the Main Gate
Around 10:05am, unless we’ve agreed somewhere easier for you. Bring a friend if you’d like — just say, so we bring a bigger car.
And back again
There’s tea, coffee and cake after the service. Stay as long as you like, then we’ll run you back to campus whenever you’re ready.
Lifts are given by members of the church, free, and arranged one Sunday at a time. If for any reason we can’t cover a particular week, we’ll tell you honestly rather than leave you standing at the gate.
Watch a Sunday before you get in a car with strangers
That’s a reasonable thing to want, and we’d think the same. So don’t take our word for any of it — go and look.
We put services and talks up on YouTube. Watch ten minutes of one: the singing, the preaching, the room, the number of people in it. You’ll know very quickly whether it’s somewhere you’d be comfortable, and you won’t have had to ask anybody anything.
Where we sit, in plain terms
We’re a Baptist church — part of the Central Baptist Association and the Baptist Union of Great Britain.
If you grew up Baptist in Nigeria, Ghana, India, Korea or the United States, some of this will be familiar. We baptise people who have decided to follow Jesus for themselves, by full immersion, rather than baptising babies. The church is led by its own members, who make decisions together. And we take the Bible seriously as our authority for what we believe and how we live.
Some of it will be different, and it’s only fair to warn you. We’re small. We meet in a school hall. The singing is probably quieter than you’re used to, the service is about an hour and a quarter rather than three, and British congregations are — let’s say — more reserved. Plenty of people find that a relief and plenty find it strange. Both are fair.
And if the word “Baptist” means nothing to you at all, it needn’t. There’s nothing to sign and nothing to agree to before you come.
The hardest job isn’t the one doing the course
Most people at Cranfield are postgraduates, and plenty of you arrive with a husband or wife and children. In our experience the one who finds it hardest isn’t the student — it’s the person at home in a village where they know nobody, with no car, no colleagues, and a winter nobody warned them about.
If that’s you, two things are worth knowing. Messy Mornings is breakfast, crafts and all-age church on a Saturday morning, built for families with young children. And The Table on a Tuesday is a free meal where children are entirely welcome and nobody minds noise.
Come to either. Bring the children. You don’t need to believe anything, sign up to anything, or bring anything with you.
What actually happens on a Sunday morning
British churches vary enormously, and nobody tells you what to expect. So here it is, plainly.
- It lasts about an hour and a quarter.
- We sing four or five songs. The words are on a screen. Standing or sitting are both completely fine.
- Someone speaks from the Bible for about twenty-five minutes.
- People wear whatever they like — jeans are normal, and so is a suit.
- Nobody will ask you for money. There’s a box at the back and visitors are not expected to put anything in it.
- Children are welcome throughout, and go out to their own groups partway through.
- Tea, coffee and cake afterwards. Stay or go, whichever suits.
- Nobody will make you stand up, introduce yourself, or explain why you’ve come.
The things people ask us
Is there really no bus on a Sunday?
Correct. The C11 runs between Cranfield University and Marston Moretaine Monday to Saturday and takes about ten minutes, but there’s no Sunday service at all. That’s exactly why we offer the lift.
Do I have to be a Christian?
No. Some of the people who come to us aren’t, and nobody will test you on anything or ask you what you believe.
Is the lift really free?
Yes. It’s church members giving someone a lift, the way you would for a neighbour. There’s nothing to pay and nothing expected in return.
What if I only want to come once?
That’s completely fine, and it happens. Come once, see what you think, and if it isn’t for you nobody will chase you or be odd about it afterwards.
Can I come to the Tuesday meal without a lift?
Yes — the bus runs on a Tuesday. The Table is at Marston Moretaine Community Centre from 4:30 to 6:30. It’s free, it’s a proper meal, and you don’t need to tell anyone you’re coming.
I need help with practical things — a GP, a SIM card, a bank account.
Ask us. Several of us have moved countries ourselves and know how baffling the first month is. We’re glad to help you sort any of it out, and it isn’t a trade — we’re not expecting anything back.
I’ve got a year here and I’d like to use it well.
Then say so early, because a year is long enough to grow and not just to help out. Plenty of you arrive already serving or leading in a church at home. Tell us what you’d like to stretch — preaching, leading a group, children’s work, running a Tuesday meal, or something we haven’t thought of — and we’ll find you something real to do and someone to do it alongside. You’ll be gone in twelve months, and that’s fine. We’d rather you left better equipped than simply thanked.
Are you going to try to convert me?
It’s a fair question. We’re a church and we do think Jesus is worth knowing about, so we’re not going to pretend otherwise. But the lift isn’t a tactic and the meal isn’t bait. Come, eat, ask whatever you like, and decide for yourself.
Tell us where you are
Your name, where you’re staying on or near campus, and the Sunday you’d like to come. That’s all we need. One line is plenty — and it’s the same address for the Tuesday meal, or for any of the practical things above.
cranfield@valecommunitychurch.comIt reaches Dan, Annie and the church office, so somebody sees it even if one of us is away — and we answer the same day. Rather fill in a form? Send us a message instead.