Building St Matthew’s
Building St Matthew’s
THE BACKSTORY
After years of renting different spaces across the city, we bought and renovated ‘Lighthouse’ (formerly St. Matthew’s Hall) in 2006, selling the charity shop we owned. By 2009 it was clear this new space was too small, especially when hosting special events and so the leadership team privately discussed and prayed about setting up a new Building and Development Fund. Within 24 hours £20,000 was donated to the work (the largest gift in our history up until that point). That same week several people had prophetic visions of Lighthouse being connected to the building next door, which happened to be an Anglican building that had been turned into a social and nightclub for the past 40-50 years. With that kind of confirmation, we shared the plan, opened the fund and began praying and saving.
Over the years that followed we continued to pray and save and eventually the club shut down, the building was left in disrepair and against all the odds we bought the building in July 2017 with the vision that once again this would become a place of welcome and worship to Jesus. We are currently in the process of renovating the building and it is estimated that the refit will cost between £500,000 – £800,000.
THE BACKSTORY
After years of renting different spaces across the city, we bought and renovated ‘Lighthouse’ (formerly St. Matthew’s Hall) in 2006, selling the charity shop we owned. By 2009 it was clear this new space was too small, especially when hosting special events and so the leadership team privately discussed and prayed about setting up a new Building and Development Fund. Within 24 hours £20,000 was donated to the work (the largest gift in our history up until that point). That same week several people had prophetic visions of Lighthouse being connected to the building next door, which happened to be an Anglican building that had been turned into a social and nightclub for the past 40-50 years. With that kind of confirmation, we shared the plan, opened the fund and began praying and saving.
Over the years that followed we continued to pray and save and eventually the club shut down, the building was left in disrepair and against all the odds we bought the building in July 2017 with the vision that once again this would become a place of welcome and worship to Jesus. We are currently in the process of renovating the building and it is estimated that the refit will cost between £500,000 – £800,000.
BUILDING BLOG
Keep updated with all that’s happening on the building development at St Matthew’s with the blog below.
BUILDING BLOG
Keep updated with all that’s happening on the building development at St Matthew’s with the blog below.
PHASE 1 // FINISHING THE UPPER WORK
The shiny new top roof is almost complete. There was a little more work than initially predicted - this seems to be a commonly emerging theme... Although we were lucky with the rafters and most of the woodwork, nearer the edges of the roof there...
PHASE 1 // THE INTERNAL CATHEDRAL
The windows were ordered and being manufactured, that left us a few weeks to try and clear out the centre of the building. We needed to be able to access the upper windows from inside so they could be sealed in. This was a big task. Lots of...
PHASE 1 // WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS…
We have had a huge amount of help from our church community along with finding some fantastic contractors who have been so far involved in the project. With the internal clear out I have been really thankful to a group of people who have...
PHASE 1 // CLEARING OUT, OPENING UP
As the days grew shorter and darker we had our first issue to overcome. The scaffold started going up quick and as we got a closer look on the lower roofs. They were well and truly rotten. This meant they would not cope with the weight of the...
PHASE 1 // SCALING HEIGHTS
At the start of November there were finally some signs of change and development from St Matthews as the scaffold started going up. However, this doesn't mean we were not busy in the run up to this visual work. There were more surveys to be...
PHASE 1 // FINISHING THE UPPER WORK
The shiny new top roof is almost complete. There was a little more work than initially predicted - this seems to be a commonly emerging theme... Although we were lucky with the rafters and most of the woodwork, nearer the edges of the roof there...
PHASE 1 // THE INTERNAL CATHEDRAL
The windows were ordered and being manufactured, that left us a few weeks to try and clear out the centre of the building. We needed to be able to access the upper windows from inside so they could be sealed in. This was a big task. Lots of...
PHASE 1 // WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS…
We have had a huge amount of help from our church community along with finding some fantastic contractors who have been so far involved in the project. With the internal clear out I have been really thankful to a group of people who have...
PHASE 1 // CLEARING OUT, OPENING UP
As the days grew shorter and darker we had our first issue to overcome. The scaffold started going up quick and as we got a closer look on the lower roofs. They were well and truly rotten. This meant they would not cope with the weight of the...
PHASE 1 // SCALING HEIGHTS
At the start of November there were finally some signs of change and development from St Matthews as the scaffold started going up. However, this doesn't mean we were not busy in the run up to this visual work. There were more surveys to be...
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