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....
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