History of the Church
Jennyfield started as a small group of Christains who had previously been meeting in each others homes for Bible study and prayer. A Sunday afternoon service was started with the help of Gareth Crossley the then minister at Zion Evangelical Church Ripon. The first meetings took place at Saltergate School in the community room. As the work grew larger premises were needed so the Church began looking and eventually found land available on the estate - where the Church is now! At first the plan was to site a 'hut' on the land but God had bigger plans and the 'hut' was never allowed. (it was given to Caring For Life at charity in Leeds just beginning to help homeless young people - see our links pages). Once the land was eventually purchased from the council with certain constraints, (it only took four years of negotiations) plans was drawn up for the Church building. Pastor Erroll Hulse held a service of dedication for the land and plannning permission was granted in 1989. After much hard work from dedicated members and builders the Church was finished in 1990. On January 27th 1991 a service of Thanksgiving was held and was taken by Gareth Crossley, Peter Parkinson (then pastor of Leeds Reformed Baptist Church) and Erroll Hulse with others taking part. Recent Account of what it is like to Attend JEC as a visitor (July 2007) Over the past year we have been priviledged to have Peter Alp meeting with us as part of his 'sabbatical' from his training in the Church of England. There follows an abstract from a letter he sent to Bishop John (John Packer - Bishop of Ripon and Leeds). '...I want to tell you that my time at JEC has been a remarkable set of experiences for me. I certainly feel blessed to have met such a welcoming group of Christians and have enjoyed their hospitality and fellowship. I have
If some minds were beset with threatening images of independent-evangelicals, all I can say is that the reality was an open-minded, intelligent set of people who accepted someone into their group who does church a little differently. On a more personal level I have found changes in style of being and doing Church to be no obstacle to my faith in Jesus Christ. He seems to be the same loving God however we express ourselves as his disciples. JEC's website, its activities and the key message from the church services are predominantly about evangelism in terms of conversion and being 'saved'. Spend more than a minute with any church member and the theology/testimony questions begin. I recently attended Robin Gamble's 'Growing Parishes' mission day at St. Mark's Church in Harrogate. It was a good day and much of the common sense practicalities of what Robin said would be accepted at JEC. If there is a difference, I guess that JEC appear so much more confident than most Anglicans I know. Where does that confidence come from? As I have just said, the most important strength of JEC is their 'can do' confidence. They are a little church which does not do 'but we can't'. This means:
This level of commitment results in a high level of Christian literacy within JEC congregations. People are reading their Bibles and Christian classics and the subsequent discussions are as challenging as they are inspiring. I think it is fair to say that these externalities stem from sincere faith in God. Whilst JEC looks forward to growth, it would not be fair to say that they are only interested in filling pews. From what I have seen and observed their aim is about growing Christians, about pointing hearts, minds and souls to Christ and things like attendance and status of 'friend' or 'member' are by-products. The warm welcome that I have received at JEC is not unique. Whereas some churches have one person doing this job at JEC everyone does the job...' Peter goes on to say that he feels that JEC sees that there are no easy, quick fixes only committment and hard work. Hope you find this abstract useful as you learn more about our church. |
 Printable Version |