This autumn, a group of around 100 adults and children came together to launch a new church on an estate in Tolworth, south west London.
Hope Church Tolworth is an initiative between members of Cornerstone Church, Kingston (who are a part of church-planting network Co-Mission) and others who have come from Emmanuel Church, Tolworth (who are Anglican). They met for the first time on Sunday 24 November in a local Primary School building, following months of gathering for prayer, picnics and meals. The pastor is Bart Erlebach, who was formerly the minister of Emmanuel, Tolworth.
Robin Walpole, a member of the plant, commented, ‘[Bart] could not in all conscience stay in the Church of England due to the majority of English bishops actively pulling the Church away from its Reformation foundations based on the authority of the Bible.’
When your church plant is failing...
We don’t often say it out loud, but church planting is deeply vulnerable. We go in with dreams, hopes, vision …