Our Journey So Far
Church Planting in Leicester
Let me introduce you to the city that has become our new home in the last two years. Leicester is a vibrant, global city full of colour and life. The city dates from Roman times and has been an important hub for the food and fashion industries for hundreds of years. Our two universities host over 45,000 students and are world leaders in many areas of scientific research.
Leicester is famously diverse - one of my colleagues has spent the last couple of years visiting all the restaurants along Narborough Road, which represent 22 nationalities, making it the most diverse street in Britain. Across the city, over 70 languages are spoken. We have 74 Mosques serving over 500,000 Muslims, and there are also large Hindu, Sikh and Jain populations. Each year the city hosts the biggest Diwali celebrations held anywhere outside India.
The Mission Field
All of which makes Leicester both a brilliant place to live and a huge mission field! According to the BBC, it's one of the least church-attending cities in England, having the lowest percentage of Christians of any area outside a few London boroughs.
There are some brilliant churches here who have welcomed us warmly, but there's a widespread understanding that Leicester is in need of more strong, Word-and-Spirit churches.
Planting From Seed
We moved here from City Church Bristol the Summer of 2022, with a vision to plant a new church that would preach the gospel, make disciples and host the presence of God. We were joined by another brave couple who moved up from Bristol and a couple of friends who lived in the city already.
Starting 'from seed', rather than coming with a big team, meant we were free to focus on getting stuck into the community, culture and learning to live on mission here long before we started any public church services.
Gathering In Our Home
Initially, we started gathering fortnightly in our home to share a meal, pray, worship and have Bible teaching. We were joined by a couple more friends and family members who came along to support us, but in time have become an integral part of the church.
We're really grateful to have had this early season of doing church very organically in our home. It was a refreshing change of pace from leading a busy site of a larger church. Plus it allowed us to really focus on the fundamentals of discipleship and mission. This was a time of laying foundations that we hope will serve us long into the future.
Moving Out
By late 2023, we had grown too big to continue meeting in our home and God provided a beautiful venue for us at a local museum near one of the university campuses. We were able to hold our Christmas service there last year and it was a joy to see lots of guests come as we preached the good news of Jesus in a public venue.
A New Year
2024 has been a busy year as God has added many wonderful people into our fledgling community from all over the world.
We've still tried to retain the low-key style of church that we'd had in our home. We still eat dinner together every week and we're learning to bring in a variety of languages and cultures into our worship. However, being in a bigger venue has enabled us to draw in guests more easily and to welcome people who never would have gotten involved before.
Holding Our Nerve
The Summer was a really challenging time for the plant. Obviously, for most churches, Summer is a quiet season. But for a small church like ours, to have lots of people travelling and students going home made for a challenging time to build community and momentum. Added to that, many of our members were going through some deep personal challenges with illness both themselves and in their families. We also felt the loss of Jenny, who had been a key preacher and evangelist in the church, who had been called back on mission to Reading.
We knew it was a time that we had to keep persevering, hold our nerve and just continue to love and serve the people the Lord had placed in front of us. Our foundations were being tested but it helped us to focus on the things that really matter in church life - love, discipleship and mission - not just having successful meetings.
And wonderfully, throughout that challenging season, we saw some amazing testimonies of the Lord miraculously healing, bringing people back to Himself and answering prayer. We've come out the other side stronger and healthier for it.
A Year of God's Faithfulness
Looking back on the year, we can see God's faithful hand and how far he has brought us... we've established a great new children's work, launched a mini-leadership team, started several discipleship groups, seen several healings, prodigals returning, begun a Freedom in Christ course, tried some outreach events that went really well (and a couple we'll never try again!). Most importantly we've made some great friends and had lots of fun doing it all.
Please pray for us:
For our church weekend away in February: that everyone would get there and that it would be a powerful time of meeting with God and building friendships
For more leaders joining and being raised up, especially worship leaders
For many people in the year ahead to be saved and discipled among us
To find out more about the church, visit www.anthemleicester.com or search @anthemleicester on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
