Kerith Farnborough: the story so far

We thought it was about time we updated you on where we are with our building project - come along this Sunday, or check your inbox next week for more on that! In the meantime though, here is a brief run down of “The story so far…”. Perhaps you’ve joined us since we’ve been meeting in our Farnborough home, or would simply appreciate a reminder of what has happened over the last few years.

Sept 2013 Kerith launched it’s first multisite venue, meeting at Sandhurst School, led by Heather and Ben Pocock. The church grew significantly in those first few years and Heather took over sole leadership as the Site Pastor, with Ben taking on a key central leadership role.

April 2019 Having outgrown the school, we began meeting at The Village Hotel in Farnborough, with a long-term ambition to develop a permanent home somewhere in the Blackwater Valley area. We changed our name from Kerith Sandhurst to Kerith Blackwater Valley, or BV for short!

March 2021 Our Kerith Office team had been keeping an eye out for buildings coming up for sale and had heard of an old soft play building in Farnborough, while Jacqui Webber-Gant was Site Pastor, during Heather’s maternity cover. One of our Elders, Duncan Klitgaard, called us to prayer.

Later on in March came the auction day! Our team were gathered around a screen to watch an eBay style bidding process…. as the numbers kept climbing we knew the limit our Trustees had set for us was getting closer. As we added our last bid we waited with bated breath… our competitor stopped bidding just shy of our limit - the building was ours! Here’s our Senior Pastor Simon Benham announcing the good news!

May 2021 On 5th May we formally acquired our new building for our Farnborough community. It was ‘down to the wire’ as the lawyers ironed out the detail… more prayer over the bank holiday Monday - BUT we sealed the deal which allowed our teams to get in and start taking stock of what needed to be done. Here is our Head of Estates Calum Field with a tour the day after we got the keys to the building.

July 25th 2021 Our first onsite gathering as the new Kerith Farnborough church community was a picnic in the car park, enjoying a brilliant afternoon of food, games and a short service in the building itself. The acapella worship filled the room… we were expectant for more, once we had cleaned the place up and sorted the electrics!

Summer/Autumn 2021 It was a busy few months as everyone worked hard to get ready for our Sunday gatherings, with painting parties and contractors in and out of the building. We gifted the soft play equipment to a charity, which is a story in itself – read about it here!

December 2021  We met for the first time in our building on Sunday 5th December. What a great morning!

2022 Lots of work took place in 2022 on our building, much of which went largely unseen; electrics, roof repairs etc. More people came to join us in Farnborough, some returning for the first time since before the pandemic, and some joining us for the first time in this exciting journey. Our team continued to dream for the future of our building. During the year we received more prophetic words around the vision for this building, and visited other church buildings for inspiration. We met with contractors and architects, sharing with them our vision that this building will be a House of God, and a House of the People.

January – April 2023 Sonia Hopkin became our new Site Pastor. Heather, as part of her new role as Teaching and Development Lead, took on responsibility for our building project in partnership with Calum Field. We began to renovate an area that would allow more space for young people to meet on Sundays, and be used mid-week for small groups, courses and by our Revive ministries.

So – that’s the (brief!) history – what about now?!

We will be sharing more over the coming weeks and months on this exciting project. This Sunday 30th April is the first of two gift days for our building fund where, as well as having a chance to give financially, we will hear and see updates of some of the most recent progress on our building. If you’ve not already, then please do subscribe to this blog, as this is where we will send updates as they happen. Also make sure you follow our Farnborough Facebook page.

We have come a long way already – and have a long way to go – but we are so excited to have you along for the journey!