Church History

We know that some of you need to know about the church history so here are some bits. If there is information that you want added do let us know.

Woodlands central that you know now started in a small church in Sea Mills in 1983 (the year I was born!) The church had been in the past an old brethren building but had been closed for 8 years. Rob and Pam Scott Cook saw it as an opportunity for community evangelism and growth so the building was bought and Highgrove Church, Sea Mills was born. By 1988 the building was full

The leadership decided to plant out to a neighbouring community. Henleaze had no obvious public evangelical church so a group began meeting as a home group. The church went public in 1992, first of all in Henleaze junior school, and then in its current location. This building above came on the market within the first 6 months and didn’t meet its reserve price at auction, so we were able to buy it. Henleaze and Westbury community church began to meet on Sunday mornings. The church decided to stay one church but two congregations and met together in the evening alternating venues between Sea Mills and Henleaze. Henleaze grew rapidly, within 18 months we needed to have two services on a Sunday morning.

We began to meet in a more central venue in the evenings, in the Hawthorns Hotel in Woodlands Road, reflecting the need to accommodate a growing student dimension
widening geographical area of attendees.

Woodlands came on the market in 1995 (just down the road) and failed to sell quickly. Rob prayed in it and had vision for it. We offered half the price as it continued to fall and were able to purchase on the back of that offer for £125k. The building was used for evening meetings initially and then in 1996 Dave Mitchell took 60 people from Henleaze to open morning congregation.

Woodlands group of Church’s is one Church with 3 congregations. The whole church grows at around 20% per year and across the 3 congregations there are nearly 1000 people meeting each week.