bout ten years ago, a fellowship in North London decided that they needed to build a more spacious entrance area with quality WCs and a new kitchen. In this way they would be Extending a warm welcome to visitors. As you might imagine much has changed. The original planning consent expired and a new planning permission was obtained. This included the need to secure a Road Closure Order for part of the site.

Ownership of the building – Roe Green Hall in Kingsbury – also changed as did the occupying church. But the outgoing fellowship was committed to God’s work and blessed the new church in helping to meet the financial cost of a new welcome area. And whilst it has taken more time than we had hoped for the project to go forward we can see that God has been kind and His timing has been perfect in so many ways. As a result the building contractors were instructed by Church Growth Trust in October and began building a new welcome area. There are some photographs below.

We will share the story of this project through a series of fortnightly articles. We hope the lessons we have learned through this project will be of interest to you. We will give links to plans and documents, share photographs and include interviews with different members of the teams involved in the project. It is also an opportunity for you to get involved by asking questions which we will try to answer, either directly or through the articles.

The weather was bad all week and Christ Church in Leamington Spa prayed for dry weather on the day of their Nativity Walk-through Extravaganza.  Thankfully, it was sunny during the event and as soon as they finished clearing up, the rain started. 

Samantha Lee, who is part of the ministry team at the church said: 

 “The Nativity Walk-through Extravaganza day at Christ Church was so awesome! As we cleared up, the Prime Minister announced the Christmas restrictions and a student had to leave straight away that evening to go home, so we were reduced in team for Sunday’s outdoor Carol Service, but Saturday’s event was truly in God’s hands”. 

The feedback from the event was excellent with one mum saying that it was wonderful to attend the walk-through nativity with real people and animals and that she was thinking of visiting the church when services restart.  Another lady gave really enthusiastic, positive feedback and said her husband, who normally doesn’t tolerate church things, said that he was impressed and had fun! 

Many that attended the event said how much it exceeded their expectations and the church want to do a similar event next Christmas even if Covid restrictions are fully lifted by then. 

Church Growth Trust thank God for the recent letting of Penhill Gospel Hall on the large Penhill Estate situated in the north east of Swindon to Discovery Church Swindon.

The Gospel Hall will now be the home of Discovery’s church plant, Penhill Community Church. Pastor Tom Price said,” We are thrilled to have been able to secure the Gospel Hall for our ministry. It gives us the platform to respond to God’s call to us as a church. We will reach out to the community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and serve the people of Penhill in visible and practical ways.”

Speaking for Church Growth Trust, Giles Arnold, its Chief Executive said “ We are very grateful for the gifting of the building to us by the former Trustees of the Gospel Hall. We rejoice that in the Lord’s will the building has been let so quickly with the responsibility for Gospel proclamation from the Hall being passed on to Discovery Church. Our prayer is that God will richly bless their ministry and so secure the long term future of the building for its God-given purpose.”

As we have ended another year, the whole staff team at Church Growth Trust are grateful for all the amazing achievements during 2020 and we want to rejoice and share some of these with you.

• 100 church properties assessed as to their fitness for their God-given purpose
• Helped 31 of CGT’s occupying churches with building projects
• 25 visits to meet with trustees/churches of church properties where they are considering gifting to CGT
• 24 hours to move everyone to homeworking from the start of the pandemic
• Six planning consents for alterations and extensions to CGT’s properties
• One new architect (Jonny Heaney) started in September
• One new trustee (Richard Jones) started in February
• No staff put on furlough

Thank you for your support and encouragements during 2020 and we look forward to 2021 and many future years helping and providing the support you need.

Andrew Hodson, who is a Counties Evangelist, is a serial church planter based in the West Midlands.  Church Growth Trust has supported him in planting in Brierley Hill and helping the church lease a building for their weekly meetings and outreach. 

As Andrew grew up, he was part of Wollaston Evangelical Church, where his father is still an elder.  Wollaston is on the outskirts of Stourbridge and Andrew has wanted to plant a church in this area for years. Andrew says: “Sometimes, with church planting there is a specific call to a place and, other times, the Lord puts something in your way and asks you to trust his leading. This is how Wollaston has been.” The existing assembly have made the difficult decision to close, as they were small in numbers and mostly elderly.  It was natural therefore, with Church Growth Trust’s relationship with Andrew Hodson and Church in the Community, the church he leads, that we would want to talk to him about using Wollaston Evangelical Church’s building.  Andrew and Jordan Armstrong, a young man with a great musical gift who has been working with students in Stourbridge town centre, are keen to see a new work established at Wollaston and are planning for the building to be given a new lease of life in the New Year, when they start their tenancy from CGT.

“We are delighted to bless Andrew and the church as they step out in this new venture by giving them a huge concession on their rent and working with them to make the property more suitable for modern church use” says Giles Arnold CGT’s Chief Executive.  “It is so good to see this property being passed down from one generation to another and continue in its Gospel use.”

During the run up to Christmas many of us like to go to a Carol Service or Community Carol Singing event, this year we cannot do that but that does not have to stop us having a good sing with our neighbours and our community.

We have heard and want to share with you that on Sunday 20th December at 5:30pm the whole country has the chance to join in Carols on your Doorstep. All you need to do is have a radio at hand. That can be a DAB radio, Freeview on your TV (725) or the Premier Radio phone app. Premier Radio will play 3 or 4 carols for everyone to sing along to. A carol sheet will be posted through your door nearer the time.

This is a good chance to dust off that festive jumper or your most festive headwear if you like. It will be family-friendly so children welcome to bring something to shake or rattle along too.

At this challenging time for all of us let’s try and bring a little joy to our community this Christmas.

Partnership is delighted to announce Evan Winter as its new Chief Operations Officer.

Evan brings a wealth of experience in leadership and operations management with different Christian organisations. In his new role, he will be responsible for leading the operations and development of Partnership over these next two pivotal years.

The move comes as Partnership seeks to grow and develop in networking independent churches together, supporting leaders and guiding them to resources to help churches be effective in mission.

As Operations Director at Global Connections for over 10 years (2007-2018), Evan worked with the leadership team to develop and implement a new strategic direction for the organisation, which resulted in steady growth in membership. During his last year there, he was acting CEO.

He began his professional life as a secondary school teacher in Northern Ireland. Previously Evan worked with Agape Ministries Ltd (1985-2007) where he held a variety of management roles in Malawi, South Africa and the UK. His CV speaks eloquently of his commitment to the work of the Lord Jesus.

Evan is keen to begin working with Partnership and intends to ‘hit the ground running’ when he takes up the role on 1 December 2020.

He is married with two married adult children and two grandchildren. He worships at Shirley Baptist Church, Solihull and serves as deacon with responsibility for mission. He is also currently serving as a Trustee and Council member with a number of mission organisations.