Greenstead Free Church is situated in the middle of a very large housing estate on the edge of Colchester. Its existence is a living proof of the power of God, working through the lives of ordinary people, to bring about his purposes.
When in the early sixties a small group of Christians first covenanted together to form a free church on the estate, they had no Pastor, no money and no prospect of being allocated a building site. However, they could and did pray to Almighty God, and in time, through many trials and setbacks, they saw their dreams become reality.
Meeting at first in a builder’s hut, the church saw their numbers grow, always fed from a flourishing children’s work. The starting point for the whole work had been a Sunday School, and the church to this day has emphasised the importance of child evangelism. When the hut was knocked down, the church met in the Pastor’s house, filling all the downstairs rooms and the stairs themselves, until finally permission was given to buy some land and build a church.
There was no wealthy benefactor to provide large sums of money, only a group of ordinary working people believing in an extraordinary God. They prayed hard and worked hard, and the money came in from all over the world. They never had an overdraft, and if the money ran out they just stopped work until they had enough to continue.
The church was built in three stages, as the needs continued to grow, so that now it has a large worship room, a sports/social hall, three smaller rooms, a vestry and a kitchen, plus toilet facilities. It stands beside a major junction on the estate, close to the shops and near the schools, in other words in an ideal position. We know that this church is God’s church, put there by him to serve his purposes on Greenstead and to reach out to the people of the area.
On Thursday, February 3rd 2000, John Bailey, the first pastor of the church, passed into God's presence. Click here for an appreciation of his work at the church.
You can order a book from us detailing the history of the church