Kensington Temple
NAME OF CHURCH TODAY London City Church Now an Elim Pentecostal Church
ADDRESS OF CHURCH Kensington Park Road Notting Hill Gate W.11
NAMES OF PASTORS AND DATE WHEN THEY SERVED THE LOCAL ASSEMBLY 1849 (Congregational Church) Rev.William Roberts 1939 (Elim) Pastor Gordon Tweed 1955 (BPCF) Pastor Francis Thomas 1965 (Elim) Pastor Eldin Corsie /1980 Pastor Wynne Lewis 1991 Senior Pastor Colin Dye
HISTORY In September 1849 Horbury Chapel, Notting Hill was officially opened. It was built as an outreach into this fast developing area of London by Hornton Street Congregational Church situated in the nearby village of Kensington. The event made the front cover of the Illustrated London News. Members of Hornton Street Church had been deeply moved at a recent prayer meeting and many had wept as they commissioned 37 people who were to pioneer the new work in Notting Hill. They also donated significant sums of money for the project. This dedication was soon rewarded as the new church grew to around 600 people with a Sunday school of 200 and a day school of 300.
The church was socially minded and ministered effectively to the poor in the area. It had a godly pastor, Rev. William Roberts, BA who was described as an "earnest, thoughtful and evangelical" minister. The church also had a strong missionary emphasis supporting many overseas missions. Gladys Aylward, the great missionary to China, found Christ following one of the services at Horbury Chapel and Dr Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist minister preached there. It is interesting to notice the similarities between the days of that Congregational Chapel and what have now become the distinctive features of Kensington Temple: fervent prayer, vision for the lost, church planting, effective ministry to people and sacrificial service.
Stephen Jeffreys recived an invitation to conduct a crusade and an invitation to become the assistant Minister with a view to becoming the senior Minister (report to follow).
George Jeffreys and the early days of Elim.
Sadly a significant decline came about Horbury Chapel. For this reason, it was rented out and in 1931 finally sold to a new and growing movement known as Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance. The Alliance had been formed by its leader, George Jeffreys whom the Lord had been using along with his brother Stephen in a powerful revival of healing and evangelism. Kensington Temple was a part of the revival of those days. In 1921, the Daily Sketch newspaper carried a front-page picture of Stephen Jeffreys together with a lady and a child miraculously healed at Kensington Temple. The building was renovated, given new seating to a new maximum of 1,100 and renamed 'Kensington Temple'. Pastor Gordon Tweed was appointed and the congregation grew to a regular 800 people and was frequently filled to capacity. Sunday after Sunday the Temple was full to capacity and people were reluctantly turned away. These were years of plenty indeed!" Bible Pattern Church Fellowship However in 1939, George Jeffreys resigned from the Elim movement over the issue of the sovereignty of the local church. For a number of years the Church was part of the Bible Pattern Church Fellowship.
Some members wanted to stay with Elim left and started a new church called 'The West London Christian Fellowship'. The new fellowship, kept its link with Elim and met in a series of different venues under the leadership of a succession of different pastors until 1958, when Eldin Corsie assumed the pastorate at Holland Park Mission. In January1955 Pastor Francis Thomas took over the pastorate of the Kensington Temple from Pastor Robert G. Tweed who went to minister at Acocks Green, Birmingham, Bible Pattern Church. In the November1956 edition of the Pattern Magazine it was reported that seven decisions for Christ were made at a Sunday morning service and one decided for Christ at the evening service. The Body of the Church was filled each Sunday morning and evening when a blessed communion and reusing Gospel service took place. Souls were saved and the members were much encouraged and built up with the wonderful fellowship.
The Sunday school was held in the afternoon with willing and devoted helpers including the Superintendent Mr. (to become Pastor) Roy Simpson. Lyn Simpson writes, “It was a great privilege to work with Roy and our joint love for the children led us to enlarge the area they were drawn from”. In such a busy area of London, for their safety, the children were collected from blocks of flats in the Portobello Road area and walked together in a “crocodile” to the church and back home again. There were many amusing and poignant incidents with the children who were a joy to teach. The truth of God’s word was often received with many snippets of weekly news from the children’s escapades. Monday evening was the young peoples’ meeting. The pastor led this with most folk attending straight from work. This meant many would enjoy some food and fellowship beforehand.
The Wednesday Bible study was always well attended and the excellent studies much appreciated. The Prayer meeting was held on a Friday evening and was well attended.
The highlight of the year was undoubtedly the Easter meetings. These commenced on Good Friday afternoon, followed by a Great evening service. Two more meetings on Saturday and then the Easter day morning and evening. These were convened by the Revival Party and the joyful Easter Hymns led by Pastor R.E. Darragh with Pastor Albert Edsor at the grand piano and the inspired and powerful Word of god preached by Principal George Jeffreys. At these services the sick were prayed for. Many testifying to the Lord’s healing touch. Including my mother witnessing a lady brought into the Good Friday service in a wicker spinal carriage. After being prayed for the lady was completely healed and was able to walk and praising during the remaining services. The climax of the week-end was the much anticipated three services on the Easter Monday at the Westminster Central Hall. The Great hall was always packed to capacity. In the morning, a great Communion service took place. At the afternoon and evening services after Principle Jeffreys powerfully preached God’s Word the sick were prayed for. Many testifying to the Lord’s healing touch. The presence of God was amazingly powerful. Also see addition report by Commander McMillan on his experiences at the Easter Monday meetings at the Westminster Central Hall.
Elim return to Kensington Temple
Following the death of George Jeffries in 1962, and after the departure of Pastor Francis Thomas who had been there since January 1955 the Beneficiary Trustee Mr mcwhirter of Kensington Temple offered to sell the building to Elim, and three years later in 1965, Eldin Corsie led a congregation of around 60 people back into KT. This left the Bible pattern Members without a Pastor and a place to meet. It is my understanding that this is when Pastor Albert Edsor commenced meetings at Denison house hall, Vauxhall Bridge Road SW1.
The Kensington News and West London Times on Friday, 7th May 1965, took up the story of the opening that was to take place the following day. When the Church was handed over from the Bible Pattern Church Fellowship to Elim during a basement clear out. The cleaning party found crutches and wheelchairs that had been discarded during the great healing meetings. They also found the 'Church Full' sign that had been placed outside the church when there was no more room inside. "Do it again, Lord!" became the constant cry of the new congregation. Eldin Corsie's ministry in the Temple continued for a further 15 years after which he became Principal of Elim Bible College. They were years of preparation as he laid new foundations into the spiritual life of the church. He also saw the congregation grow to 600. Eldin laboured effectively in every area that was later to bear fruit in the 1980's. He placed a strong emphasis on prayer, developed fellowship groups (the forerunners of today's satellite churches), welcomed members from the international community and exercised a strong evangelistic and teaching ministry.
In September 1980, Wynne Lewis hit the church like a human tornado! His dynamic leadership style, together with his ability to hear from God and implement His plans, took the church forward by leaps and bounds. During his ministry at KT, which lasted just over a decade, he led the church from 600 to 5,000 people. Much of the growth came from the international community that was attracted by the fellowship groups that Wynne Lewis started but the real breakthrough came in 1983 after Wynne was laid up for many months following a car crash. In hospital, God clearly spoke to Wynne about his intentions for KT and when Wynne finally went back to work he was a changed person. He ministered under a new anointing and the church began to grow rapidly. In 1985, Colin Dye joined the leadership team and founded the Bible Institute. He also planted the first Satellite Church in Barnet where a fellowship group had been meeting in Eldin Corsie's time.
During the second half of the eighties, the church's mission’s ministry also took on a greater significance when the entire leadership accepted their responsibility for world evangelism. The church was now filled several times each Sunday, and there were up to 40 different satellite congregations. In 1991 Wynne left KT for the post of General Superintendent of Elim, and Colin Dye was appointed Senior Pastor. Under the leadership of Colin Dye, KT continued to grow regularly reaching up to a maximum of 15,000 people. Church planting also continued to be a major focus and with that Colin developed Kensington Temple and its satellite churches into a citywide structure called the 'London City Church'. This network linked everyone together and initiated a comprehensive strategy to win London for Christ. Colin instituted the 'City Celebrations', which aim to bring together the central congregations and the network churches into a large venue on a regular basis. In 1992, 4,600 gathered in the Royal Albert Hall and in 1993, 10,000 came together in Wembley Arena. These developed into full scale 'Holy Convocations' held at the Wembley Arena (October, 1998-1999). In 1999 the 'Revival Healing Services' at the Royal Albert Hall were reminiscent of the great Elim Meetings with George Jeffreys earlier in the century.
From March 1996, Colin was able to preach and share the vision from Kensington Temple into many different venues at once. A number of the London City churches were linked together through a special satellite broadcast. This networking programme helped the churches to share a common vision to build a City Church as well as becoming an effective church planting strategy. Colin's apostolic anointing, drive and teaching ministry encouraged hundreds of Christians to be involved in building the city church. The main goal of the 1990s was to develop 2,000 churches, fellowships and groups by the end of the year 2000. The goal wasn't totally fulfilled, but the 1990s saw Kensington Temple plant more churches than any other group in Europe. It would have been very easy to be hampered by a building that was too small to contain the attendees back in the 1980s, let alone to allow for further growth into the 1990s, but Colin made sure that through live link congregations, networking and church planting growth continued apace. The church offices moved into a former BBC building in North Acton in the autumn of 1996.
The scenery construction warehouse space adjoining was converted into a 3,000-4,000 seater auditorium. It was renamed `The Tabernacle' and opened in March 1997. The training aspects of the church played an increasingly key role in the growth of the church. The Bible Institute under Colin Dye grew to be the largest Pentecostal Bible School in Europe attracting students from many nations. In 2000, Kensington Temple and the London City Church network began to transition into a cell church, following the G12 cell church model pioneered by Cesar Castellanos in Bogota, Colombia.
Grateful acknowledgement and thanks to Mrs. L Simpson (Niece of Principal George Jeffries) and London City Church for information.
MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW (PLEASE USE THE COMMENT BOX BELOW TO ADD OR CORRECT ANY INFORMATION)
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