New life for a village Gospel Hall Discovery Church previously known as Wroughton Assemblies of God started a work in the village of Wroughton, near Swindon, in 1996, buying a redundant pub and making extensive changes to use it as a church building. They soon outgrew it and sold the pub with planning permission for housing in 2005 thinking that it would not take long to find another suitable building or plot of land in the village. That was 17 years ago during which time they have met in a local school and community centre, but have not been able to purchase anything of their own.
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They were aware of the Gospel Hall in the village, as one of their members had become a Christian there as a young boy in the 1950s, but it was still being used by a small remnant with a different background and worship style to themselves. Meetings in the hall ceased when the pandemic began, and the trustees of the property decided to gift it to Church Growth Trust (CGT). Although CGT were prepared to work with the remnant of the assembly and encouraged Counties to
support an evangelist in the village, these options did not work out. Having already let a building in Swindon to Discovery Church, CGT were happy to agree a letting of the Gospel Hall to Discovery Church Wroughton. As the Pastor Geoff Naylor says, “Being offered the building by Church Growth Trust enables us to have a new home after all these years and to do some of the things within the community which have been difficult without our own building. They have been very helpful in reducing the rent in recognition of the work we are doing to improve the building and plot. We are so thankful for the advice and encouragement of the Church Growth Trust team”.
Geoff Naylor with the new accessible WC
