










|
HISTORY
 |
|
| |
|
| CHAPTER 1 |
CHAPTER 3 |
The story began in April 1905. A man
called George Hide rented an upper room of a house in Stone
Lane, to hold services for his family and a few friends. At that
particular time, the only other Church in the area was the
Parish Church of St. Symphorians and the area was, to a large
extent unpopulated. In fact, most of the area around here
consisted of market gardens.
The
original services continued for four years until George Hide was
asked to vacate the room in which they were meeting. For the
next three months, the group met in the open air outside "The
Spotted Cow" public house, now known as "The John Selden", at
the eastern end of Salvington Road. George Hide was a man of
vision. In 1911, following two years of meeting for worship in a
school, a plot of land was purchased for £70 in order to build a
new Free Church. |
The
most significant change took place when Andrew Kane, a Baptist
minister straight out of Spurgeons College was invited to take
the Church as his first pastorate in the Autumn of 1970. The
membership at that time was just over 90, with approximately
50-60 attending on the Sunday mornings and some 30-40 in the
evenings. As Andrew relates, the average age of the membership
was quite high! God was working in Andrew’s life as a result of
experiencing the baptism in the Holy Spirit..
Within the first two years, Andrew sensed very strongly that God
was calling him to build a Church which was run as closely to
the New Testament pattern as possible. Following a concentrated
period of prayer when it was decided to appoint a Committee for
evangelism. God prompted two elderly ladies, true prayer
warriors, to say that they felt an inner mission was needed
before an outer one should be considered. |
| CHAPTER 2 |
CHAPTER 4 |
The church was completed in 1912 at a
cost of £380. The original Church is now the Coffee Shop. That
was the beginning of Durrington Free Church and it consisted of
twelve adult members and the same number of children in the
Sunday school.
It is interesting to note that the original vision was for a
non-denominational Church being free to move, grow and change as
God directed without
any hindrance from denomination ties.
See the old pics at the top of this page. |
In
October 1972, Campbell McAlpine led a mission, which resulted in
a remarkable renewing and restoring ministry by the Holy Spirit
in individual lives. Renewal was birthed which went on to touch
every area of Church life. The Church programme was scrapped,
organisations were disbanded and the whole life of the Church
laid open to the works of God’s Spirit. As these were
manifested, there were changes in attitude and in worship as new
songs were introduced.
With Eldership being established, the gifts of the Holy Spirit
were explored and began to function. Numerical growth was also
experienced, which resulted in the planting of additional
churches in the area. These were: Storrington with Andy Sercombe
in 1980/81. Broadwater with Rodney Kingston in 1982. Goring with
John Sutcliffe in 1989. Highdown with Dorian Hammond in 1992
|
CHAPTER 5 AND BEYOND.....
|
The lesson the church learned through all
these exciting events and some disappointments along the way was
that God is a God of change. In fact on joining the church we
ask members to accept that change is here to stay! Because we
remain constantly open to the Holy Spirit’s direction, He may
decide that certain things are no longer necessary, or change
what we are doing.
We therefore expect the Holy Spirit to be on the move and we
would wish to move with Him! In 1999 we adopted a
Purpose Statement to summarise what New Life Church is
all about and to help monitor our effectiveness. In 2005, we
celebrated 100 years of
'Serving the
Community.....Reaching the World'. We've had an exciting history
but we confidently believe that the best is yet to come as we
remain open
to the Holy Spirit, and willing to cast aside our personal
preferences in order to move on with Him....
|
| top of page |
|