A history of New Community Church - the early years

In the early 1970s a group of Christian students at Southampton University began meeting for an informal worship time on Sunday afternoons. The group attended a small Bible Week at Capel in Surrey where they heard the teaching of author and conference speaker Arthur Wallis and others who were pioneering the house church movement.

At the same time, churches in Southampton were beginning to experience charismatic gifts and there was a desire to hold informal home group meetings. This led to friction in some quarters, and a growing desire emerged for a new kind of church; one that held true to Scripture, experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, and was prepared to present the Christian faith in a relevant way to modern society. Gradually house groups began to appear around Southampton, two of which were involved in forming the fellowship that later became the Community Church. 

The church began in 1975 when these two house groups joined with the student group at the University to become Southampton Christian Fellowship, initially under the apostolic oversight of Bryn Jones. The first meeting took place on the first Sunday in March 1975. Just over 50 attended that first meeting but as word got round there was rapid growth. By October 1977 a close link had developed with West End Evangelical Church and the two fellowships merged to form Community Church.

Tony Morton soon emerged as the principal leader and gave up a teaching career to serve the church full-time. In the early 1980's Arthur Wallis and his wife Eileen moved to Southampton to help support the mostly young leadership team. The church's ministry was soon in demand from other small groups who wanted to establish new churches and a network of relationships soon began to develop. This network became known as Cornerstone, and later on was known as c.net.

The church had a vision to reach beyond themselves and the 1980s saw the development of many projects and mission initiatives including the establishing of The King's School, a Christian day school, Firgrove, a crisis pregnancy centre, Groundswell, initiative to support those who are HIV positive.

The 1990s began with the acquisition of Central Hall and the development of that facility as a centre of worship, prayer, training and mission. Our work overseas developed with key mission centres established in India, South Africa, USA, Kenya, Nepal, Spain and France. In the late 90s the church acquired a property in northern France to further our ministry to the french speaking world. The 1990s also saw the development of the evangelistic ministry Miracle Street, the Central Counselling and Training Service and School of Ministries.

Our work among young people took great leaps forward during this time with the development of the Cutting Edge events, that launched the band Delirious?, and the establishment of Sublime, an innovative youth congregation.

Over the weekend of January 19th and 20th 2002 and after 25 years at the helm, Tony Morton handed the leadership of Community Church to Billy Kennedy. Billy had been a part of Community Church for over 20 years and involved in a wide variety of roles.

The church continued to develop new mission initiatives in and around Southampton with works beginning on various estates and new communities established for young adults.

Sadly, in June 2004 Tony Morton stepped down from all leadership responsibilities within Community Church and c.net. It was decided to close the network of churches called c.net. Billy Kennedy led the church through this challenging time and into a new phase with the refurbishment of Central Hall and the transition to New Community.