Meet the Groups - News UK Christian Fellowship 

At Transform Work we believe Christian Workplace Groups should be open to all - both committed Christians and those enquiring about the faith. Groups are there not only to support their members but also to be a presence for God in the workplace. The aims of the News UK Christian Fellowship, described below by Justin Walford, one of the leaders of the group, reflect the ways in which a CWG can position itself and find relevance and acceptance in a large company. Such acceptance, in fact, that they were able to work in partnership with the company recently to have the Archbishop of Canterbury as a guest speaker. 

"I think that we can start by saying that we wanted to create a broad Christian group, so that all those of Christian faith or merely interested in the Christian faith would feel a welcome stemming from this.  

At our speaker events, it was important to ensure a wide variety of speakers, from different denominations and backgrounds as well as a welcoming place for members of staff to meet and share each others' concerns. 

I think that we have tried, constantly, to balance serving the needs of the individuals in the group - by friendship, support and prayer -
with genuinely having an outreach for the Gospel in the company. 

Both of these - particularly outreach - are not easy in a company or commercial organisation. We have not made assumptions or demands but sought permission to meet in the first instance, rather than assuming the right to meet. In fact by not asserting our right we have been granted great favour and opportunities. We are careful to meet only in the lunch hour - even when we did an Alpha at work - this was confined to the lunch-hour. Over several years we have by God's grace developed a wonderful relationship between the company and fellowship. 

We always pray for our executives and openly thank them for their ongoing support of the fellowship and our activities. 

Our future strategy is based upon (1) providing a place for people of faith to meet and share fellowship (2) promoting interest, debate and discussion about the Gospel in the company as a whole. Added to this is (3) providing a safe a confidential place for any member of staff facing difficulty, problems, illness or bereavement to find support and comfort and, where requested, prayer."