About Us | The Story So Far
It all began in the Autumn of 1996 when Jonathan and Helen Bell moved to Birmingham with a desire to plant a church which would change a city. In April, 1997, West Birmingham Family Church opened its doors for the first time...
...actually the doors of an Adult Education Centre we rented to hold our first public meetings. We had no idea what to expect, but God amazed us! Just through word-of-mouth, we gathered 75 people in our first six months! Two years on we were able to send a group of 25 people to plant The Crown church in Handsworth. Since then we've continued to send people out to pioneer new churches on a regular basis. At the same time the growth has continued, forcing us to move to the bigger facilities of King Edward's Boy's School in Edgbaston in 2001.
From the beginning, however, the goal was not simply to become a big church. Authentic relationships have always been stressed, with small groups offering opportunities for people to develop spiritually while building life-long friendships. As much as possible, we try to keep pretence and performance out, and emphasize that growth and healing takes place in the context of the church family. Through it all, God has changed hundreds of lives.
In response to the growth and the increasing influence across the city that God has given us we changed our name to Churchcentral in 2006. As well as believing that God is going to give us a new city centre base, we really do believe in the centrality of the church in the purposes of God.
