New Wolverhampton church looks for permanent home for worship
A one-year-old church is looking for public and spiritual help with finding a physical home.
City Church Wolverhampton was founded in May 2020 by pastor Tim Berry after the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FITC) identified the city as one of 50 cities without enough churches.
The church has not been able to meet in person yet due to the coronavirus pandemic but has built an online community of 12 adult members.
The 32-year-old pastor said it has been a difficult year to start up the church due to the pandemic, but said the process of building the church had been a blessing.
He said: "When the church started, I was living in Oswestry with my wife Renske and three children and we weren't able to get over here to start the church up in person.
"We met friends in Wolverhampton through friends of friends and we asked them if they would like to start meeting online like every other church was doing at that point.
"We started doing it and we've had more people join us along the way and while if we'd done it in person, it might have grown quicker, I'm amazed and thankful we've been able to grow this in lockdown."
Pastor Berry said the next stage for the church was to find a permanent physical venue for meetings and services and spoke about how the search was going.
He said: "In one sense, it's very much been word of mouth and we've spent a lot of time praying about it and asking the lord to take us to the right space.
"One of the people who has joined us is the chaplain at a school and we're investigating whether that's a possibility or not, and we've spoken to a number of other churches about renting space.
"We're really keen on meeting people and getting to know folks in the community, so we'd like people to reach out, not just with this, but to give a hand wherever we can."
Pastor Berry's father Andrew acts as chair of trustees and associate pastor at the church and said it was an exciting time for the church as it looks to find a home.
He said: "As we exit out of lockdown, I think it's really exciting to have the possibility to meet in person.
"I've observed that people are wanting to get out to the pub and meet their friends and get back to worshipping Jesus, so I think it's going to be huge to find a home for the church."
To find out more about City Church search for City Church Wolverhampton.
