Co-Mission says it is ‘thrilled’ about three new church plants that, ‘in God’s kindness’, have just launched in London.
Redeemer Queen’s Park in north-west London launched on Saturday 25 September at 4 p.m. in Salusbury (sic) Primary School. Over the last year, God has graciously assembled a core team of 25 adults with a few kids to boot. Amazingly, 65 adults and 13 kids turned up for their launch, and even more the second week! Most arrived through personal relationships with the core team. Others connected with Redeemer through flyering or social media. The church’s university outreach and its children’s work are big draws.
Redeemer, led by Thomas West, is grateful to God for His grace and kindness to them so far. Please pray with them for genuine fruit in the years to come.
The following day – 26 September – saw the launch of All Nations Church Barkingside & Clayhall in north-east London, meeting on Sundays at 4p.m. in Fullwell Cross Library. This is the culmination of 18 months of building a launch team, led by Rick Raja, from four partnership churches: Salway, Woodford Evangelical, Grove Hill Evangelical and Grace Church Wanstead. At the launch Trevor Archer preached a compelling message from 1 Thessalonians 2:1–12 as God’s extraordinary grace was celebrated.
All Nations is a wonderful example of churches and organisations partnering together to birth a new church as they generously share resources, pledge finances and send people. Their prayer is that they’d be salt and light in their community, and would inspire and catalyse similar collaborative church-planting initiatives across London.
That same day, in south-east London, Grace Church Beckenham launched at 4 p.m. in The Mansion at Beckenham Place Park – which is less grand than it sounds! God has kindly gathered a godly core, led by Matt Dew-Jones, from different ages and life stages, and answered many prayers.
Grace Church Beckenham has been excited to welcome a range of newcomers: Christians who previously commuted out of Beckenham to church (many to Christ Church Bromley); and unbelievers and the ‘de-churched’ who have come (and returned) through friendships, flyering and social media. One girl commented: ‘I haven’t been to church since I was a kid, but I’ve been reading the Bible on my own at uni and I really want a Bible-teaching church. This is just near my house.’
Praise God for church plants and generous collaborations from local churches, the FIEC and many others!
