Church.co.uk has changed its name to help reinforce its ethos of inclusivity, and in response to a bit of people power.

The church found that it was being referred to as the Oasis Church by its newly planted congregations around the country and decided to follow suit.

"Potential partners were calling us and saying they wanted to establish ‘an Oasis Church’ in their area – the name stuck and became part of our vocabulary. It’s a natural evolution so we are just formalising it," said Wes Sutton, leader of The Oasis Church network.

The church network was launched in 2003 as church.co.uk to reflect the Oasis vision of church as more than four walls and an open door on a Sunday, but a place that would deliver the Christian message 24/7, just like a website.

"Establishing church.co.uk helped us reflect the values of Oasis in a church setting. We wanted to give an alternative to people who had been used to seeing church as a staid institution looking inward rather than out to its immediate community.

"The name church.co.uk helped reinforce that sense that we weren’t going to sleep on our laurels but were alive, active and a contemporary expression of church," he added.

"The new name of The Oasis Church won’t change what we do, but will tie us in a little more with the Oasis vision of making the church the hub of a community."

The Oasis Church will continue to use the church.co.uk domain name.