Barnabas Community Church is an independent, charismatic

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

in Shrewsbury, England, associated with the

British New Church Movement The British New Church Movement (BNCM) is a neocharismatic evangelical Christian movement. Its origin is associated with the Charismatic Movement of the 1960s, although it both predates it and has an agenda that goes beyond it. It was originally k ...

. It is part of the

Newfrontiers Newfrontiers (previously New Frontiers International) is a neo-charismatic church network of evangelical, charismatic churches founded by Terry Virgo. It forms part of the British New Church Movement, which began in the late 1950s and 1960s co ...

family of churches and a member of the

Evangelical Alliance The Evangelical Alliance (EA) is a national evangelical alliance, member of the World Evangelical Alliance. Founded in 1846, the activities of the Evangelical Alliance aim to promote evangelical Christian beliefs in government, media and socie ...

. The congregation meets every Sunday at 10am at the Barnabas Centre, in

Coleham Coleham is a district of the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England. It is located just south, over the River Severn, from Shrewsbury town centre. History Coleham grew up as a village outside medieval Shrewsbury, with the nearest crossing ov ...

History

Barnabas Christian Fellowship was founded in 1983, after the Crowmoor Baptist Church outgrew its building at the time. The initial group was about 80 strong. Restricted by only having limited capacity in meeting rooms above a pub, as the church grew, it separated into two congregations for a three-year period. In 1993, the two congregations reunited and began meeting together at the Wakeman School, now part of the

Shrewsbury Sixth Form College Shrewsbury Sixth Form College is a post-secondary co-educational sixth-form college located in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England. The college currently has an enrolment of approximately 1,650 students, generally ranging betwee ...

, with a clear sense that a new "home" was needed. In 1996 Barnabas formally became part of Newfrontiers, an international family of similar churches, and in 1999 formally adopted a

cell group The cell group is a form of church organization that is used in many Christian churches. Cell groups are generally intended to teach the Bible and personalize Christian fellowship. They are always used in cell churches, but also occur in parac ...

model for church life - now referred to as Midweek Groups - having been inspired by other churches' usage. About the same time the Alpha Course was adopted and has been run twice a year since then.

The Barnabas Centre

Between 1983 and 1985 the church met in various public halls including the Music Hall, now the Shrewsbury Museum, and the Gateway arts centre. Between 1985 and 1996 the church rented a suite of rooms above the Lloyds pub in Shrewsbury town centre. In 1996 the church moved to the Longden Coleham Territorial Army Centre whose premises it expanded and now uses as a permanent base.

References

External links

* http://www.barnabascommunitychurch.com {{Authority control Newfrontiers Churches in Shrewsbury