Church ready to be place for community and future generations

The new Wall Heath Evangelical Free Church officially welcomed people through its doors on April 9 for an opening and dedication ceremony, officially marking the end of a 10 year journey to rebuild the existing church.

The rebuilding project, which has cost around £1.4 million, started after Pastor Matt Jones and members of the church spoke to contractors about making improvements to the existing older building.

He said: "When they came in and looked at the building, they said it wasn't really worth extending or renovating as it had kind of had its day really, so suggested the idea of a full rebuild.

"We did discuss it at length as it's a big thing to take on, completely rebuilding the place, but we saw fairly early on that there was only so much we could do with the building.

"We were struggling to fulfil our potential in the old building, so we decided to go for it and have the rebuild very much designed around our vision and our desire to be much more than we were."

The church partnered with several Christian professionals, including John Hardie of Advance Architects, Nigel May of Mayway Construction and Futurekraft who oversaw the fundraising.

Gaining planning permission in January 2018, there were initial fears when the pandemic started, but through the encouragement and support of their architect and contractor, the team were able to complete the work towards planning conditions and demolition started in October 2020.

Although the church initially only had enough funding to complete phase one, which included demolition, foundations and floor to damp proof course, through the generosity of the local church family, members of the community, trusts and grant funders and a mortgage from Charity bank, the church was able to hold its first service on December 19 last year.

For Pastor Jones, the new premises means the church can fulfil its ministry and increase the level of community outreach it has through being able to connect with more people.

He said: "The connection with the community is very much at the heart of what this building is and we have worked to make it more accommodating and easier to access.

"Also, we have future-proofed it so that generations ahead will not have to worry about that, following the mindset of a culture that looks at more than just a traditional, old-fashioned church.

"We have designed it to be a place people can meet and access, with the cafe at the front designed for easy access, and we've put a lot of time and hard work into this.

"This has been a huge project for us and, as Christians, we believe that we want to have a place people can come and worship, while also offering things that our community need and know will benefit them greatly."