Community Church (formerly known as Lawrence Weston Christian Fellowship) began through the missionary endeavour of a well known Pentecostal minister called Alfred Missen. Alfred was Pastor of The Mount of Olives Church, another Assemblies of God church in Bristol and later became General Secretary of the British Assemblies of God Churches.
During the late 1950’s whilst on a bus journey to visit some of his parishioners who were living on the large post-war housing estate of Lawrence Weston in the North East of Bristol, Alfred felt God speak to him about starting a Pentecostal church in that needy part of the city.
The Mount of Olives church soon started an outreach to children in a Lawrence Weston school, which rapidly flourished and was supplemented by a Sunday School in the local youth club.
The need for a church building at Lawrence Weston was soon apparent, so in early 1963 a piece of land was purchased on Ridingleaze for this purpose. The building work began quickly through the skills and labour of both professionals and volunteers. The building project was financed through generous anonymous gifts and through Assemblies of God Property Trust.
On the 13th July 1963 the new church building was officially opened and dedicated with an afternoon and an evening service which was a time of great celebration and thanksgiving led by several Assemblies of God ministers. Shortly after the opening of the new building an Assemblies of God Home Missions campaign followed with evangelist Gordon Bailey.
A year after the official opening, a first anniversary celebration was held and after this significant milestone the church inducted its very first pastor, a man called Jim Palmer. Since then the following men have served the church as leaders...
- Jim Palmer (1964-1974)
- Mr Perkins in the mid-1970s
- Dennis Davis (1978-1980)
- John Billingham (1980-1985)
- Steve Griffiths (1986-2014)
- Jim Allmark (2014-present)
In the mid 1990's the church realised that they needed to relocate to another building to further expand their work in the community. So the current building, which was at the time a brethren assembly hall, was purchased.
The present congregation are deeply thankful to God for the vision, faith and hard work of those of a past generation who have laid a solid foundation to the glory of God. And it's on this solid foundation of faith and missional endeavour that the people of Community Church want to build upon ensuring another generation at Lawrence Weston hear the message of the love of God.