31st May 1981

(Pentecost day)

Tyne Green Fellowship began meeting under the leadership of Jim & Jessica Hall. The group quickly became 30 gathering in their home to study the book of Acts. Peter and Betty Bell and David and Margaret Payne were founding members, along with Jim and Jessica Hall.

Both Peter and David had worked together in a Coffee Bar outreach in the 70’s and went on to become Community Church Elders.

The decision was made to begin meeting in the Community Centre under the new name of Hexham Community Church.

Around this period the book “Cells for Life” by Ron Trudinger of Basingstoke Community Church, became our manual for how to do church and we looked to develop House groups.

Evangelism was a high priority and we used a mixture of:

  • Invitations to City Hall, YFC events.
  • Bringing guest speakers to Hexham like Colin Urqhart and Bob Gordon.
  • Personal evangelism, inviting friends and family to church socials and services.
  • Leaflet dropping to promote events.
  • Street witnessing with singing, drama, preaching, giving out tracts and talking to people
Herbert Harrison, Senior Pastor of Bethshan, a church in Newcastle, was asked to come to provide some oversight and help. An intermediary leadership team was set up consisting of David Payne, Peter Bell and Kevin Williams.

Alf Entwisle of Bethshan was invited to be Pastor of Hexham Community Church. He and his wife, Jean, moved from Ryton to Hexham.

Numerous people came and went as we established our identity and Alf took us from being a group of “Holy Spirit filled Christians”, to gaining respect in the local Christian community and becoming part of Churches Together. During this period we drew heavily on the resources of Restoration Ministries (Bradford) and Vineyard.

1987

1993

Central Chambers (our building) became available and with God’s guidance, the expertise of Roddy Matthews, and the whole congregation mucking in – we moved firstly into the ground floor, then the whole building.

The Christian bookshop, ‘Shalom’ closed in Corbridge, and moved to our premises in Hexham. (In 2009 it was re-branded “The Cedar Tree”).

We opened and closed a youth coffee bar called ‘The Zone’, and experimented with music concerts as outreach events. Alpha became established as a useful tool and we began to link in with Salt & Light Ministries.

1996

2000

Alf became seriously ill and stopped leading the church at that point. An interim leadership team led the church for the next few years during which time the congregation lost direction and a large number of people drifted away from the fellowship.

Alf and Jean formally retired, having faithfully served for 17 years.

2002

2004

Henry and Anne-Marie Ford were invited to come from pastoring South Church in Basingstoke and lead HCC.

Neil and Elaine Strike take over the Senior Leadership with Henry and Anne-Marie moving on to Derby. Neil was previously a full time Elder at Tees Valley Community Church in Eaglescliffe.

October 2009