County Church is a new Christian church in Northumberland.

We want to pioneer new groups of believers, all over the County of Northumberland. Our mission is 'to change the landscape by planting churches'. Our first Church, which meets in South East Northumberland, and launched in January 2007, is known as County Church Wansbeck.

By 'Church' we don't mean a religious building or place of worship. In fact a church can exist without a building. 'Church' is simply the word for a community of Christians in a particular area.

County Church does not have a building at all. We currently meet at Bedlington Community Centre on Sunday Mornings and in small groups in people’s homes during the week (see cell groups).

Why 'County' Church?

Because the name expresses our County-wide mission.

At present we are few in number, but our long term vision is a big one. You could say it is a ludicrously large vision with ludicrously small beginnings.  We recognise this is not something we can do on our own, which is why our partnerships are so important to us.

Partnership

County Church is an initiative in partnership with City Church, Newcastle.

City Church, also a member of the Newfrontiers family of churches, lives with a vision to plant churches throughout the north. Having recently planted out into Edinburgh and Glasgow, now through County Church - they are reaching into Northumberland too.

Newfrontiers

County Church Northumberland is a Newfrontiers church planting initiative.

Newfrontiers is a worldwide family of churches together on a mission. (See www.newfrontiers.xtn.org) It began with a few churches in East Sussex but there are now nearly 300 churches worldwide.

With a passionate commitment to build the church according to New Testament principles, Newfrontiers believe that the most effective form of evangelism is worked out from strong local churches - churches where each member participates, the gifts of the Spirit are outworked, where there is joy in caring one for the other, where there is a desire to make a difference in society and to reach those in need.

They aim to achieve this by making disciples, training leaders, planting churches and reaching the nations.

County Church will be supported and served by others from within the Newfrontiers family of churches.

Relating to other churches

We are not unlike a battalion sent out to join an existing army.

One of County Church's first priorities in starting out is to make contact with churches with a similar passion for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in Northumberland.

Our desire is to establish relationships of trust with other Christian churches. We have distinctives which we will bring to the County, but we also have much to learn and receive from others.

We believe that one of the most powerful expressions of unity as churches is to accept & affirm one another in what we are doing on many fronts. We also believe that regional corporate identity will make the church spiritually convincing & give us authenticity in the County.

County Church is a member of the Evangelical Alliance. The leaders of County Church also meet with other Christian leaders in Northumberland under the 'Together Northumberland' umbrella, and County Church is in the process of joining Churches Together in Bedlingtonshire.

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