New network aims to bring creative Christians across the Diocese together

A social website has been created by a Gloucester-based Christian to bring together people who enjoy being creative and exploring ways that God speaks to us and reaches others through art.

The Gloucestershire Christian Creative Collective (GCCC) is described as ‘a non-denominational community for Christian brothers and sisters in Gloucestershire who want to find new ways to spread the Gospel and celebrate the Word through creativity and collaboration’.

The website was created by Rebecca Snel, who lives in Gloucester and worships at Trinity Baptist Church.

“My husband, Ko, and I have felt for a long time that we were being guided to look for ‘outside the box’ ways to serve the neurodiverse population, as we are in a neurodiverse family ourselves. We started developing a heart for helping people (especially those who are struggling) to discover their inner creative drive. Our church hosts many asylum seekers for various activities, and Ko, an amateur woodworker, was invited to do a demonstration during an English class. Watching the asylum seekers develop their skills and quickly discover a passion for making was very encouraging. We saw there was much potential in using arts, crafts and other creative areas, such as writing, to help people open up and experience the love of God.”

After reflecting on this for some time, Rebecca had a sense that God was looking to expand this into something more but wasn’t sure how to develop it.

“It was at a Christian networking conference where, during a coaching session, I shared a little bit of our vision of opening a creativity centre and the phrase ‘creativity collective’ popped into my head. I suddenly realised we were not supposed to be doing this alone. From there the idea of gathering a community together was born; a community of Christians with all sorts of creative gifts who can empower each other and together discover ways to use our gifts to reach out and serve the churchless community.”

Rebecca, who is passionate about encouraging unity between churches and denominations, created the website and invited people from other churches in and around the Diocese to join.

“I wanted to create a focused online space that was different to the main social media channels like Facebook, which can be distracting with adverts and other content. ‘Creative’ is a broad term, and this is for anyone musicians, artists, woodworkers, whatever.

“I’m not a trained artist. I’ve not studied art, but I find it so therapeutic in lots of ways. This is something God has put on my heart. It’s in its early days but the aim is for us to hold some kind of art event in Gloucester – to connect with people through our art. We could collaborate on outreach projects, which through art can be a natural way to connect and engage with other people. The possibilities are endless, so it would be lovely to see us all working creatively together.”

When you join the GCCC website, you will see posts from other members and can post your own thoughts and creative projects with other Christians. To sign up, visit: Gloucestershire Christian Creativity Collective :: Homepage (gccc.uk)