Church Growth Trust holds 100 church properties all over England and Wales. This means that our staff are usually (pre-COVID-19) travelling all over the country. It is therefore a great blessing to be given a property within 15 miles of our office.
Praise Community Church has had a major impact on local towns in Northamptonshire, but in recent years has reduced in numbers, with the decision being taken at the end of 2019 to close their only remaining venue in Kettering. Although they had thought that they would sell the property, they were delighted to hear of the work of Church Growth Trust in keeping buildings such as theirs in Gospel use. They have made a decision to gift the property to CGT and we are in the process of finding a local church to take on the use of the building. The local Foodbank currently operates from the building and it is hoped that this will continue, at least for the short term.
Giles Arnold, CGT’s Chief Executive, states “whilst we are delighted to help Praise Community Church in taking on their building and already have an interest from one local church, we know that there are a number of challenges that will need to be dealt with, as the building will require some major alterations to make it suitable for modern church use and compliant with the current regulations. Our architect is already drawing up plans to make changes and we will be discussing this with the new church that takes on the building. It helps that the property is very local.”
