Monday, 27 June 2011

50 years in 3 Minutes

Hey all, what a momentous day it was for LifeChurch Manchester. Following on from a great meeting where Mike spoke about the funeral service for the building which has served us well for over 50 years. During the bbq in the afternoon there was a great sense of family and anticipation for what is to come over these next few years. It's been quite a journey for us and so here is 50 years of the Kings Centre - in 3 minutes.. 

So we start in 1963 when the church was known as ‘Sale Baptist Church’ when the Kings Centre was built. People from across the congregation which was around 50 members contributed to the project. The overall cost of this building was £34,000 ! However the extension (where the crèche meets) was constructed later. We’re grateful for those faithful givers – as without them, who knows where we would be now.

Fast forward 15 years and Mike Beaumont who we’re please to have with us today was ordained as minister on 1st July 1977. Mike served as vicar until 1991when he was called to the beautiful pastures of....Oxford and the Church temporarily met as three different congregations in Sale, Urmston and Stretford led by Geoff Chad, Martin Dunkley and Nick Matthews respectfully. Martin Dunkley then took over the reigns at what was now called SMCF as these congregations merged as one in Sale. Dave Rolles recalls that it was in 1992 that we started pursuing a new building but after pursing multiple options, including a long pursuit of the bingo hall in Stretford but it was felt in the end that God was calling us to remain in sale and to rebuild.
Interestingly I have a prophetic word with me from Bryn Franklin from that same year which he had a picture of a very expensive perfume which carried a tremendous odour and was very precious. He felt that God had given many boxes of perfume to people in this church and He was saying ‘don’t preserve what I’ve given to you but break it open and let the smell and the aroma fill the whole place because God is in the business of expansion.

So, when Martin felt the call to the beautiful pastures of … Teeside Andy Barclay Watt took the reigns in 2003 and along with the elders gave hugely sacrificially to really get the ball rolling with this project. Many here have given sacrificially to make this happen, and we’ve seen our target reach £1.5m in gifts and pledges and finally, we get to move out in order to see the growth and expansion we need. 

This Friday we move offices to Baguley although phone numbers / emails are the same and all post will be automatically redistributed.  


Really looking forward to our first service at The Avenue this Sunday at 4.30pm. We will be kicking off our meetings in a slightly different style. There will be a 5 minute countdown video running from 4.25 and then a video that welcomes people to LifeChurch Manchester. Have a great week and we'll see you on Sunday.



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