“Follow the disused train line and plant a church where it leads…”
Our Story
Our story starts with an encounter with a stranger. In May 2015, whilst visiting a group of churches in the north of England, God spoke to Paul through a stranger. The stranger said “follow the disused railway line and plant a church in the town where it leads”. At the time, Paul & Lottie lived a stone’s throw from the disused railway line in Chipping Norton. The line originally led to Cheltenham.
This prophetic word launched a journey to plant a new church in Cheltenham.
In 2019 & 2020, backed by the Salt & Light Advance family of churches, Paul & Lottie started to share the vision for planting a new church in Cheltenham within our churches. They started to draw together a team to start the plant.
In June 2021 a team of seven adults and two children moved into town during the pandemic. We started gathering in homes, eating, praying & worshipping together and getting to know Cheltenham.
During the next few years, we were joined by others from our churches. Families and individuals moved from Oxford, Stroud & Gloucester to join the team. Bit by bit, the church grew, until we were filling a large lounge.
In November 2023 we started to gather publicly once a month in various venues around Cheltenham. During 2024 we continued to grow, moving in June to a new venue.
In November we started to meet publicly every Sunday. Our church continues to grow and we are now gathering 30-40 people, each week.
