14 Years of Faith and God’s Provision in Broadstone

The year was 2007 when pastor Tim Gamston and the leaders of Broadstone Baptist Church in Dorset took the decision to begin an ambitious building project to grow the church’s mission in Broadstone. The project would include a new facilities building, the demolition of the old, ageing church hall, and the construction of a new focal point of the church’s ministry.

The facilities building was finished and opened in 2015, enabling an extension of the church’s ministry to the local community, followed by plans for stage 2 – the main church hall – which was put into place in 2019.

Trusting in God’s provision

“One of the things we wanted to do was to start a project that was beyond our natural resources and would fail unless God worked,” Tim said. And God surely did provide!

Funds were raised from within the fellowship of the church and through grant-giving trusts. New, regular giving from the congregation, complemented by Gift Days, raised 84% of the required total, in addition to donations from church associates and local grant-giving charity ‘The Talbot Village Trust’.

Even the provision of a couple of gifted people with architectural and civil engineering experience joining the membership helped to keep the project on track and in budget.

“The fact that, through God’s grace, we raised all the money without any loans and completed on time is “our miracle” and cause for our ongoing thanks and praise.” Tim shared.

It is always an encouragement when a church steps out in faith and the Lord provides abundantly!

Ministry growth

With God’s provision comes a sense of responsibility not to waste what has been graciously provided.

The meeting rooms in the new Community Building allowed for small group discipleship classes to be run, and opened up the possibility of running Christianity Explored courses while the evening prayer meeting was taking place.

The children and young adult teaching groups have benefited enormously from the new facilities in all areas of the new church centre, and there is now the infrastructure to expand the ministry to the local community which didn’t exist before.

Lockdown life

Of course, no one could have anticipated the building project would be finished in the midst of a global pandemic back in 2007, but even in this, God graciously provided just what Broadstone needed at just the right time.

In January 2020 demolition of the existing church began and the planned one-year relocation to a nearby primary school went ahead smoothly.

Yet, as national restrictions were enforced, plans unavoidably changed and throughout 2020 the previously completed Community Building became the hub for all written, live-streamed, and pre-recorded resources.

Although complex, communication with the whole church fellowship has been faithfully maintained. Despite the difficulties, unity and inclusivity were paramount and live-streamed Sunday services from the new hall were supplemented by mid-week prayer gatherings on Zoom. Audio recordings, DVDs, and sermon notes were then mailed out and posted on the church website.

The new church hall and first floor offices were ready for occupation in January 2021 and the large, external backlit cross is now a focal point on York Road.

Live streaming on YouTube now takes place from inside the much larger worship hall, supplemented by a growing number of returning members of the fellowship pre-booking for socially distanced services. A full thanksgiving service is planned for September.

The step of faith made 14 years ago, and the completion in the midst of the pandemic to provide just what was needed, is a great testimony to God’s care and provision for his people.

Tim commented: “Throughout the project we have witnessed God’s grace and perfect timing in every conceivable way. As we look to the future ministry of the church in Broadstone, we now have a much greater confidence in our God to do far more than we could imagine to be possible.”