Partnership in Planting

In 1641, the Puritan pastor Richard Baxter began preaching in Kidderminster. Over the next two decades, virtually the entire town of 2,000 people was converted, most of whom previously had no interest in Christ.

One writer observed that “a visitor walking through the streets [of Kidderminster] on a Sunday during this period might hear the singing of psalms and rehearsals of the day’s sermon echoing from countless homes.”

Today the population of Kidderminster and the surrounding Wyre Forest region in North Worcestershire stands not at 2,000 people but 102,000, most of whom do not know Jesus Christ.

We prayerfully hope the Lord will use Grace Church Kidderminster to play a part in once again causing the praises of Jesus’ name to reverberate throughout this region.

A new venture

Grace Church Kidderminster is a new church, launching in January 2025, with a wonderful backstory. Its formation has been made possible by cooperation and partnership between three churches – Kidderminster Evangelical Church (KEC), Christ Church Wyre Forest (CCWF) in nearby Stourport, and Woodgreen Church in Worcester.

KEC and CCWF have been faithful witnesses for Christ in the Wyre Forest for many years. Recently, both churches have faced the same challenge: being a small congregation with an aging demographic. Both churches retained a burning desire to see lost people saved by Jesus, yet as they looked ahead to the future they had the humility and foresight to recognise it was going to be extremely hard to continue without external help.

In God’s perfect timing, both churches reached out to Richard Lacey, the lead pastor at Woodgreen Church, within weeks of each other. The Woodgreen leadership responded positively to these requests for help, and leaders from the three churches began to meet and pray together.

Through much prayer, discussion and seeking the Lord’s will – and driven by a shared desire to see the gospel continue to be proclaimed in the Wyre Forest – a radical suggestion was proposed; namely KEC and CCWF merging together, along with a team of people from Woodgreen, to form a brand new church.

Navigating change

This proposal seemed radical because, alongside the small matter of blending three groups into one church family, there were also secondary-level theological differences to consider.

Woodgreen and KEC are part of FIEC, whilst CCWF is an Anglican church in an evangelical denomination called AMiE (Anglican Mission in England). Despite excitement at the developing plans, we were keenly aware of potential pitfalls and questions that needed answering.

• Would our theological differences be too great?
• Would our stylistic preferences prove too strong to relinquish?
• Would members of KEC and CCWF embrace such sudden, significant change?
• Would anyone from Woodgreen be willing to leave an established church to join a smaller, newer work?
• Who would lead the new church?

We began to prayerfully commit these matters to the Lord.

Each church soon had an existing leader willing to be part of Grace Church’s eldership. I will leave my role as associate pastor at Woodgreen to be lead pastor, Leo Davison the current minister of CCWF will be our associate pastor, and Phil Weber of KEC will be a lay elder.

Charity and clarity

In early 2024 we held a series of joint church vision meetings (pictured above) so that everyone could meet each other, pray and discuss these plans together, and to enable us as leaders to sketch out a vision for the new church. God graciously granted us the ability to show charity to each other in our discussions and gave us increasing clarity together about what Grace Church will be like.

Our testimony is that God has answered our prayers and questions one by one.

Those from an Anglican background showed immense humility in accepting the new church will practise believers’ baptism, plural leadership, and be part of FIEC. Those from across the churches who were nervous about the prospect of change realised this was a cost worth embracing for the sake of the gospel.

By April 2024, KEC and CCWF had both held congregational votes which were overwhelmingly positive in favour of committing to Grace Church Kidderminster. God has worked in the hearts of people at Woodgreen so that 14 adults and 8 children have now committed to join the new work too.

It has been wonderful to see God beginning to form us together into one new church family. I hope our story may encourage other churches in a similar position to reach out to nearby churches to explore partnership opportunities.