The Emmanuel Centre is (nearly!) here

We are excited to announce the Grand Opening of The Emmanuel Centre, our new home, on Sunday 21st May!

God has given us a vision to be a growing, charismatic, family church with a world vision, and grow to become a worshipping community of 400 and beyond… and for that we need more space!

£1 million-plus investment

The Emmanuel Centre (TEC), a £1 million-plus investment, offers a 500-seat auditorium which, like our current home The Durham Centre (TDC), will be used for church and conference business purposes.

Its opening comes 14 years after that of TDC, which has a 300-seat auditorium plus other smaller rooms.

Since we opened TDC, God has blessed us with growth in numbers, diversity and faith.

Both The Durham Centre and The Emmanuel Centre are on Belmont Industrial Estate, in adjacent units. On Sundays our main church meeting will from Sunday 21st May take place in TEC.

Meanwhile TDC, which until now has hosted our services, will be entirely devoted to activities for children and young people, of which there are over 100 regularly attending the church.

Grateful to God

Alan Bell, our lead pastor, said: “We are extremely grateful to God for how He has blessed us, growing us in numbers, diversity and faith, so that we reached the point where The Durham Centre was no longer big enough for us.

“Creating The Emmanuel Centre is a step of faith. We believe that God’s will for us is to be a worshipping community of 400 and beyond, reaching the nations and our local communities for Jesus. We are very pleased to soon be worshipping in The Emmanuel Centre. We would warmly encourage people to come to visit us, and are excited to see what God will do in the days ahead.”

Our story

Emmanuel Church was founded in 1980 and is part of the Regions Beyond family of churches. We met in various locations around Durham until moving into our first permanent home, TDC, in 2009.

David Campbell, who founded the church, will return to speak at TEC’s Grand Opening Celebration.

We have has links across the globe and are also active locally, in social action projects and supporting local communities. As well as over 100 children and young people, we have thriving community groups, known as Emmanuel Communities, and over 50 student members.

You’re invited!

We would warmly invite you to join us for TEC’s Grand Opening Celebration on Sunday 21st May from 10.30am.

Pursuing God's plans for growth: The Emmanuel Centre

It's now 10 years since we moved into The Durham Centre, the first permanent home we could call our own.

Since then, we've seen God grow us as a church in Durham, and planted out into Chester-le-Street.

We've also seen God bless the conference centre business at The Durham Centre, beyond anything we could have imagined; and this has created resource to plough back into our Kingdom ministry. 

We're so thankful to God for everything He has done.

But we don't want to stop there...

God has spoken clearly to us about further growth and, as part of this, we're very pleased to report that we have now purchased the industrial unit opposite The Durham Centre.

We plan to convert the unit into The Emmanuel Centre, a new church and conference venue, with an auditorium seating up to 500, a small kitchen and toilet facilities.

As with The Durham Centre, during the week this would have a commercial purpose as a conference and business venue.

On Sundays, it would host our Durham congregation, allowing The Durham Centre to be used for children and youth provision, which is growing rapidly - beyond the space currently available. 

The next step in this project is to turn the grassed area next to The Emmanuel Centre into additional car parking space. 

We want to do this first because it will allow The Durham Centre to take extra bookings, in turn creating extra resource for The Emmanuel Centre project.

This project requires significant finances. 

Church members and friends have already contributed to the purchase of The Emmanuel Centre by one-off donations, and increasing their regular giving. 

Our next Gift Day, on Sunday 9 June, will also be dedicated to the project. For more information on how you can give, please visit our Giving page.

If you have further questions, please get in touch.

Strengthening and blessing churches in India

Kishan and Luton in their new apartment

Ian has just returned from visiting the two Regions Beyond churches that we have close links with in India. With Colin he gave a weekend’s teaching to the In Depth Discipleship group. The growth in the church was noticeable here, as only six of the 20 were part of the group last year.

Time was also spent visiting families in the church, enjoying curries, encouraging and praying for them.

He was able to visit Kishan & Luton in their new apartment. If you remember, last year we took up an offering, part of which has assisted them in getting a bigger apartment outside the slum. They lead the growing work among the Hindi speakers, and at Christmas were able to host a party for nearly 30 of their contacts.

Edgar leading prayer for Regions Beyond churches around the world

After a six-hour drive he was with Edgar’s church, and straight into some teaching, as they were involved in a 21-day prayer & fasting series.  Ian was able to deliver the recent gift that we had given which was immediately put into use to buy equipment to launch a new project working with 0-5 years children and their mothers in the slum. 

“It is both amazing and humbling to see how our small contribution is so valued and multiplied as we partner with our friends in the gospel”

— Ian

Please do continue to pray for India. They have an uncertain political future ahead of them, which may impact on their freedoms.

Flower petal display on Valentine’s Day