Family Update: A new lease of hope in the centre of Ipswich
Many of you have already been excited to see news coverage of the amazing step of faith that Hope Church Ipswich have taken. Not only local outlets like the Ipswich Star, but even the BBC shared the story of their recent purchase of a derelict cinema in the centre of the town.
To many of those reading, this is a simple story of one church’s positive impact on a town community. But to those of us who believe that God’s desire is to bless the nations through His people, we know that their step of faith will have far greater eternal significance.
Tom Scrivens, elder at Hope Church, and Jenny Greenwood pick up the story.
As a church we made a big step this autumn and moved into our new building, the former Odeon cinema in the centre of Ipswich.
“The building we see before us now is the result of prophetic promises, many prayer meetings and numerous special offerings where we’ve been stretched in faith again and again.”
We have been on an incredible journey of prayer and faith-filled generosity over the past fiver years as we’ve sought God for a bigger home for our church family, having outgrown our former premises. The building we see before us now is the result of prophetic promises, many prayer meetings and numerous special offerings where we’ve been stretched in faith again and again. God has been so faithful to us throughout, enabling hundreds of people to give generously and opening up different income sources that we could never have worked out ourselves.
Provision fifteen years in the making
As a team we first viewed the site in January 2017 when it was a run-down, musty and heavily water damaged building, yet still retaining some great relics from its cinema days. The five-screen Odeon cinema closed its doors in 2005 and since then had remained a talking point in the town, a monstrous landmark building with no apparent uses forthcoming.
Through the amazing support of a local borough councillor we secured planning permission the same week as the Relational Mission Courage Conference in May 2018 and we finally received the keys in September of that year. What followed was a rollercoaster ride as we got to grips with the scale of the work that was needed and as God raised our gaze to the ways that this building could be used to serve His Kingdom purposes.
Before: The cinema still had many of its old fittings, including ticket machines and popcorn makers
More offerings, more prayer meetings, many work parties and wonderful answered prayers followed, and hot on their heels a global pandemic which briefly paused the works in spring 2020 and pushed back our opening date. In the end, the refurbishment works alone totalled more than £2.5 million - a staggering figure, especially when we consider that it’s very much been a family effort, with no “mega” gifts.
Hundreds of church family members gave time, expertise and prayers to transform the cinema into a church fit for use:
The building, renamed The Hope Centre, has many small, medium and large rooms for the church to use on Sundays and throughout the week, as well as a large auditorium for Sunday gatherings, It also has two café/lounge areas, which are great spaces for people to relax in.
Fresh beginnings, a new hope
We’ve had a wonderful start to life in the new building with great times of celebration as five people were baptised on the launch Sunday in October. There are further baptisms planned for a few weeks’ time, and dozens of guests each week who are new to church and exploring Christianity. Our children’s work has had over 100 children aged 1-11 join in, and our youth work is seeing over 40 teenagers attending every Sunday too.
It is an exciting time and we are rejoicing in what God is doing and very much coveting the prayers of our family of churches as we seek to steward all that God is entrusting us with at this time.