Hello my name is Jamie, Beacon Church was planted out from Barnabas in Shrewsbury in 2008, and we started meeting fairly quickly at the Civic Centre in Whitchurch, which is a really near the top of the High Street in the town center. After a while, we started to receive prophetic words that streams were going to flow out from the church and down the High Street, into the town so to speak. We had this on two or three occasions and sort of shelved it to one side.
Meanwhile we began looking for accommodation and believe it or not, we looked at 35 different buildings where Beacon could actually begin to have a footprint, a permanent based in the town, rather than simply being a pop-up church on a Sunday morning, which we had to set up and set down every week.
So, we planted in 2008 and in December 2020, we found a building. Initially it had been on sale for £900,000 which was far too much for us as a congregation at that stage, probably around 50 people. So, we thought it would be nice but it’s way above our affordability.
The building itself was at the bottom of the High Street right between some Chemists, it’s great for access and it’s the part of town which is very busy, really at the very center of the town, the ‘Bull Ring’. Curiously this building suddenly dropped in price from £900,000 to £400,000 and one of the elders noticed this and said “hey, we can make an offer on this!” So, we made an offer, and they accepted £380,000 which was affordable with a mortgage. So, in December 2020, we took possession of this building, 600 sq meters on both the ground and first floors, it’s a big building! It was formally two separate stores, an Argos and Ethel Austin, which were knocked into one.
We began the process of renovation to make it into a church building on the Argos side. We made it into an auditorium for the church and on the other side into a community center with folding doors.
By way of getting to the point of the story, The Civic Centre where we had been meeting suddenly discovered in November of last year (2023) that it had RAAC and asbestos and they’ve had to close the building down with no plans to rebuild it. So, we suddenly found that we are the biggest building int he town and we’re right in the heart of the town center at the bottom of the High Street, accessible to everyone.
Suddenly we’ve actually found ourselves as the de facto Civic Centre, the library is now asking, could we pay you to have a lift and stairs to go into the first floor and set up our library in just a part of this huge expanse which was the Argos store room?
So, God has really abundantly blessed us, and it was just through perseverance. So, as I finish the passage, I wanted to share with you is Luke 8:15 where it says, in the parable of the servants those who bear good fruit do it through, one word ‘perseverance’ who by perseverance, keep going and bear fruit 30, 60, 100 fold.
That’s really our message, we looked at 35 buildings, but this one was the one. So, keep persevering, in whatever area you’re thinking of, keep persevering because fruit comes through perseverance. Have a read of Luke 8:15.
Watch Jamie's Testimony here:
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