New Life Baptist Church

In June we celebrated 200 years of Baptist witness in the Kings Heath area.

The church currently on this site is the third to be built here.  Over the 200 years we have sought to preach the Gospel in this area and to engage with the local community in many ways.

During the month of June we celebrated this special anniversary with a wide range of activities, concluding with a Service of Thanksgiving and Commitment in our church on Saturday 25th June.

Throughout June we held exhibitions in the church.

The first of these covered the history of Baptist churches in Kings Heath and included material accumulated over the 200 year period.

The second exhibition gave a visual opportunity to discover the gospel message which has been proclaimed in the three churches that have occupied this site.

In addition there was a feature on important events that have taken place over the last 200 years.  This included quiz papers for both adults and children.

‘Time Out’, a new community space, was launched on Saturday 19th June 2010 to coincide with the Kings Heath Street Party.

New Life Baptist Church in Kings Heath opened its newly landscaped church frontage as a Community Space called ‘Time Out’. Following a substantial grant of £42,587 from the Community Spaces programme, the forecourt at New Life Baptist Church has been completely refurbished with paving, benches and planters to make it a focal point and a place to catch your breath on the busy Kings Heath High Street. The opening on June 19th included a Boy’s Brigade Marching Band, BBQ, and Jazz band outside and inside the church a history exhibition, floral arrangements, activities for children and the coffee shop.

The project came about following an extensive public consultation, undertaken by the church, where the public identified they would love somewhere to take a break while shopping on the High Street. This is how the Time Out project turned from a dream to reality. Martin Poole, a trustee of New Life Baptist Church, said; ‘we used to have a low wall in front of the church until it got knocked down by a lorry, people loved to sit on this wall to have a rest, wait to meet friends or eat their lunch. When it was knocked down people started sitting on the church steps, so we thought wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a proper space for them to take a break, that’s when we thought up the ’Time Out’ project’.

New Life minister David Barber takes up the story. ‘Last year we invested a lot of time and money in developing and refurbishing our church sanctuary and making it more user friendly. We replaced the hard pews with comfortable seats, opened up the entrance with glass doors and fitted out a proper coffee shop called ‘Jubilatte’. Everyone liked what we had done but the outside was still a bit of a mess and we started to look for ways to improve it. That’s when through a church member we heard about Groundwork UK and the Community Space grant. We employed the same architects, Marc Worrall and Associates, who oversaw the church refurbishment and then appointed by tender Applewood Contracts to do the work. The rest as they say is history!’

On Saturday the 19th June Time Out was officially opened by Cllr Martin Mullaney. Martin a long time supporter of New Life Baptist Church’s community programme said;    ‘I’m really honoured to be involved with such an outgoing church as New Life. As well as the Community Space they have provide a wall for street artists and they have a retail chaplaincy with  Pat and Graham  Wigley. The local business community are really supporting this work and helping to plant up the flower tubs and boarders’.

Asked was it all worthwhile Martin Poole said, ‘Although its been hard work and we have learnt many new skills especially in preparing applications, completing reports and project management we would certainly do it again and we would recommend others to have ago too. If you have an idea for a project like this why not talk to Groundwork UK about it, I’m sure they will be pleased to help’.

The original documents from the two time capsules found in January 2009 were sealed in new containers and an additional container containing letters and current memorably added to the archive.

After a flurry of activity by many members of the congregation during the week we were able to have our first service in the refurbished sanctuary on Saturday 7th March. At 2:00pm Lisa and Colin took their marriage vows before family, friends and members of the congregation. A wonderful way to celebrate our new church entrance and interior. The next day was our first opportunity to hold our normal Sunday services and to see the outcome of many months of planning, prayer, discussion and work.

As part of our Easter activities we intend to celebrate the re-opening of the church together as a congregation. On 6th June 2009 there will be the official opening which will include a day of varied events and activities open to the public.