BUILD
Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. Isaiah 54:2
Locks Heath Free Church is a living and growing faith community - committed to loving God and sharing faith, hope and love with our local community and beyond. Week by week, we aim to offer practical biblical teaching, engaging corporate worship and opportunities to grow as disciples as we share life together in small groups. Through a wide range of ministries we also intentionally engage with the young and the not so young! Our vision is to create multiple bridging points for people to encounter the life transforming power of Jesus whether they have been Jesus followers for years or are just beginning to explore faith. Everybody is welcome. This does, however, create a pressing challenge for us as a church family. As ministries thrive and grow, a lack of physical space becomes a real issue. In order to continue with all that God has entrusted us with and to be able to respond to the new opportunities we believe God has planned for us, we desperately need more space. To simply say Church Full is not an option - there are too many people who have yet to encounter the love of Jesus through Locks Heath Free Church. Encouragingly, this is not a new challenge for us. We thank God that previous generations did not put up a Church Full sign and sit back; instead they prayed, planned, gave, sacrificed and built a bigger building and served in new ministries. Their faithfulness has enabled more of God s blessing - look around and see the results of their step of faith! Now is our time. the church family demonstrates the love of Jesus in action Before the LHFC family now is the next big stretch of faith an opportunity from God to build a larger and more welcoming space that will be fit for His purposes in the days ahead. We thank God for making the land available and for planning permission being granted, making our vision a real possibility - not simply to build a bigger building, but to see more lives transformed, more families restored and the presence of Jesus at the heart of our community. Will you play your part? Together with God on this amazing adventure of faith, we can build an inspiring place of faith, hope and love in our community. Thank you so much for being part of all God has planned. Mark Madavan Senior Minister
The present Every week LHFC sees over 800 people come through our doors. Sundays are a high point as the church family gathers together for worship, teaching, equipping and building relationships. Sunday services are also the bridge and shop window for new families and people investigating if LHFC might be the place where they can connect with God and His family. Both morning services have seen growth, but the contemporary 11am service in particular regularly presses the capacity limits of our building. Move beyond Sunday services, and a wide variety of ministries engage with an even wider group of people. Besides the Sunday church family, hundreds of people from our community engage with LHFC s children s ministries, youth ministries, seniors ministries, parent and toddlers, Messy Church, marriage and parenting courses, Alpha courses, men s breakfasts, special events, summer events, Messy Boomerang all attracting growing numbers of people and providing opportunities for the LHFC family to share faith, hope and love. Beyond the walls of our church building, further bridges are being built through school reading schemes, after school clubs, parenting courses, one-to-one mentoring sessions, debt advice, anti-trafficking events and short and longer term mission in the UK and abroad. Many of these activities connect even more people to the ministries and activities based in our present building. Over and over again, through each of these ministries, Jesus is encountered - hope is discovered, the lonely are embraced, forgiveness is found and lives are changed. As a result, the family of God grows.
Why we need to build Without a doubt, the present church building has served us well, but it is also clear that the potential to strengthen existing ministries and to dream bigger dreams is being restricted by a lack of space. Our recently refurbished entrance and foyer have been a welcome improvement, but they have not been able to address the structural restrictions that exist. The physical lack of space regularly results in congestion rather than community. With growing Sunday attendance our main worship area is regularly full and overflow options are severely restricted. Presently, we re-locate many of our children and young people to a nearby home and school not much fun when it is raining! During the week, demand for space regularly overwhelms our ability to offer suitable rooms, and our present church building layout restricts the opportunity to host several activities simultaneously. Our dream is not to simply provide more space for existing ministries, but to reach more, enable more, serve more a welcoming coffee shop to meet and build relationships during the week an inspiring worship and teaching space that says there is room for you a community-friendly space for concerts and outreach events a counselling room to help those facing life s challenges a prayer room to quietly seek God a larger activity hall to host more community activities flexibility to respond to the needs of our community debt advice, food bank, pregnancy crisis, addiction recovery, job clubs, family mediation space to dream The opportunities are endless. Now is our time to build for the future.
1903 15th January Locks Heath Congregational Church opened. 1930 Electricity installed and children & youth activities thrived. 1980-9 Rev Gordon Skipp appointed as first 1980 Minister of the renamed Locks Heath Free Church. 1988 New land acquired and fund raising for new building started. 1989 Rev David Clarkson appointed as Senior Minister of LHFC and additional staff appointed over subsequent years. 2003 January LHFC celebrates church centenary. Rev Mark Madavan appointed as Senior Minister of LHFC. 1921 An ex-army hut was purchased and furnished as a place for the local Primary school and church mid-week activities. 1953 New homes being built church seeks to meet new needs. 1990 10th February Current building opened and dedicated to God. 2004-9 As the church grew a new staff team developed; a second minister, an administrator, a families, a youth and a children s team leader. 2009 Explored the possibility of purchasing the ex-mfi warehouse.
2010 MFI option removed but miraculous opportunity to purchase land next to LHFC. April 2010 Church Meeting unanimously voted to buy the field and acquire planning permission. 2010-11 church consulted for new building ideas, architect plans drawn up and discussed. 2011 22nd December At 12:01pm the Church became proud owners of a field! 2 012 February Church Meeting unanimously agreed to submit 4.2million plans. 2013 July Planning application totally and unexpectedly refused gutted! September Planning application, including additional land, submitted and unanimously supported by Fareham Borough Council praise God! 2 014 2 017 TO NOW IS OUR TIME
It s not about a building but our heart to connect our community with Jesus
AecDbMvBlockRef New Church building: The foyer will be purposefully spacious and airy. On Sundays and during the week, this will be a welcoming place to greet and gather. With a dedicated coffee area/lounge this will be the bridge leading to many of the ministries happening in the building, but it will also provide an ideal relaxed venue to meet during the day, and for evening outreach events and informal gatherings. PLANT RM KITCHEN MULTI - USE ROOM 2 The new worship area will provide a space to worship and learn together on a Sunday, with room for growth, but will also be a flexible space that can be cleared of seating and used for a wide variety of events. REFUSE POINT KITCHEN ANNEX The activity/sports hall has been designed as a large flexible space which leads into the foyer or can be used independently from the rest of the new building. STORE ST. REFRESHMENTS MU FOYER The new building will include a counselling room a dedicated and safe place to help people needing one-to-one help or facing crisis. On the first floor there will be a prayer room PEDESTRIAN CROSSING available for those seeking a quiet refuge in our busy world and offices for those working in the building. MEETING RM CHILDREN'S AND YOUTH SANCTUARY Outside will include landscaped additional car parking and a second access point to Hunts Pond Road, providing an IN and an OUT to ease traffic congestion. ST. ST. Check out the new building fly-through www.lhfc.org.uk/flythrough
PERMEABLE PAVIORS REINFORCED GRASS SANCTUARY A MUSIC/ PA STORE SEATING AREA STORE SEATING AREA ACTIVITY HALL CHAIR STORE PRE-SCHOOL UTILITY TOILET COURTYARD GARDEN CL. LTI-USE ROOM 1 FORM NEW OPENING RAMP UP DIS/WC REC'N FOYER MALE WC FEMALE WC TEA DIS. WC EDGE OF FIRST FLOOR OVER VESTRY BRIDGE OVER OFFICE COUNSEL'G ROOM ENTRANCE VESTRY LIFT STORE EDGE OF FIRST FLOOR OVER PREP 1 in 20 PAVED ACCESS TO ENTRANCE TO EXISTING BUILDING LOUNGE OUTDOOR SEATING AREA VEHICLE DROP OFF POINT PEDESTRIAN CROSSING PLANTING BED
AecDbMvBlockRef A PLANT RM ACTIVITY HALL KITCHEN MULTI - USE ROOM 2 PRE-SCHOOL REFUSE POINT KITCHEN ANNEX UTILITY TOILET STORE ST. REFRESHMENTS COURTYARD GARDEN MULTI-USE ROOM 1 DIS/ FOYER FORM NEW OPENING RAMP UP REC'N PEDESTRIAN CROSSING MEETING RM CHILDREN'S AND YOUTH SANCTUARY OFFICE COUNSEL'G ROOM VESTRY ST. ST. 1 in 20 PAVED ACCESS TO ENTRANCE TO EXISTING BUILDING PEDESTRIAN CROSSING
STORE Present Church building: CHAIR STORE SEATING AREA This building will remain the primary home of many of our weekday activities. However, in order to do this well a number of modifications are planned. The present sports hall will be divided into a lower and an upper floor to create new rooms including a large multi-use room and a dedicated pre-school suite. WC MALE WC FOYER The kitchen area will be upgraded to better service events held in the building. EDGE OF FIRST FLOOR OVER CL. Several internal corridors will be added to enable independent access to each room, plus a new entrance established to allow easier flow between the new and the present building. BRIDGE OVER FEMALE WC The coffee lounge will be expanded to offer a better size room. A dedicated youth suite will be created on the first floor. TEA DIS. WC VESTRY ENTRANCE LIFT STORE PREP EDGE OF FIRST FLOOR OVER The present worship area will remain and will continue to be used for a variety of events, including a venue for children and/or youth worship events. LOUNGE OUTDOOR SEATING AREA VEHICLE DROP OFF POINT
Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. 1 Chronicles 29:9 (ESV) Finance Not surprisingly, a project this comprehensive and significant will cost a great deal. However it is important to remember that this is not the first time LHFC has approached such a challenge. In fact, many of our present membership responded to God s call to generously and sacrificially give to enable our present church building to become a reality. The same God who called His church to step out in faith then, calls us now. Our overall target for this build is 4.2million. We aim to raise this money in a variety of ways that include personal gifts from the church family, the sale of a church property, fund raising activities, applying for any appropriate grants and seeking to raise a mortgage. However it is important to realise that God gives the task primarily to His people, the church that is you and me. As a church family many have already given significant amounts of money towards this project, others are giving monthly to help us reach the necessary target. Thank you so much. There is still a long way to go. To break this total into more comprehensible amounts we have broken it down into 5 sized bricks ( 5 = 1 brick) and have been encouraging people to buy bricks. Every 5 given makes a difference. For example, maybe you spend 5 a week on newspapers - if instead you gave this to the Build project with Gift Aid that would add up to 975 over 3 years! However, we also need people to give larger amounts - pallets of bricks, walls of bricks, lorry loads of bricks! In order to see these plans become a reality, and for more people to have the opportunity to personally encounter Jesus, we need the entire church family to count themselves in. Now is our time. Are you in? Pray - Plan - Give Offer Stretch Pray Please prayerfully consider how God is asking you to respond. For further information: Listen to the podcast sermon series entitled Build via our website www.lhfc.org.uk/build Check out Frequently Asked Questions on our church website www.lhfc.org.uk/buildfaq Watch the new building fly-through www.lhfc.org.uk/flythrough
Ways to give: Bank Transfer Lloyds Bank a/c name:: Locks Heath Free Church Ref: your name/bfund. Sort Code: 30 93 17 a/c no: 00436861 Follow this up with an email to treasurer@lhfc.org.uk stating the amount you have transferred and if Gift Aid is possible. Standing Order Monthly giving adds up! Either increase your existing Standing Order or start a new one [forms available from the LHFC Office or website] - drop it into your bank, or use on-line banking. Please email details of increase to treasurer@lhfc.org.uk Cash or Cheque Place cash or cheques [made payable to LHFC ] with your name into an envelope marked Building Fund and use the Sunday offering bags or hand into the LHFC Office. Just Text Giving Text LHFC42 and amount to 70070 2 014-2 017 Now is our time If you are a UK tax payer, Gift Aid adds a massive 25% extra to your gift at no cost to you. Ensure your name is attached to any giving if you are already signed up for Gift Aid or complete a form [available from the LHFC Office or website]
It s not about a building but our heart to connect our community with Jesus Why are we doing this? For the community to encounter the Kingdom of God For the church to be able to meet as a family For generations to come Now is our time - let s build together Locks Heath Free Church, 255 Hunts Pond Road, Titchfield Common, Fareham, PO14 4PG 01489 579669 www.lhfc.org.uk sharing faith, hope and love