The Emmanuel Centre is (nearly!) here

We are excited to announce the Grand Opening of The Emmanuel Centre, our new home, on Sunday 21st May!

God has given us a vision to be a growing, charismatic, family church with a world vision, and grow to become a worshipping community of 400 and beyond… and for that we need more space!

£1 million-plus investment

The Emmanuel Centre (TEC), a £1 million-plus investment, offers a 500-seat auditorium which, like our current home The Durham Centre (TDC), will be used for church and conference business purposes.

Its opening comes 14 years after that of TDC, which has a 300-seat auditorium plus other smaller rooms.

Since we opened TDC, God has blessed us with growth in numbers, diversity and faith.

Both The Durham Centre and The Emmanuel Centre are on Belmont Industrial Estate, in adjacent units. On Sundays our main church meeting will from Sunday 21st May take place in TEC.

Meanwhile TDC, which until now has hosted our services, will be entirely devoted to activities for children and young people, of which there are over 100 regularly attending the church.

Grateful to God

Alan Bell, our lead pastor, said: “We are extremely grateful to God for how He has blessed us, growing us in numbers, diversity and faith, so that we reached the point where The Durham Centre was no longer big enough for us.

“Creating The Emmanuel Centre is a step of faith. We believe that God’s will for us is to be a worshipping community of 400 and beyond, reaching the nations and our local communities for Jesus. We are very pleased to soon be worshipping in The Emmanuel Centre. We would warmly encourage people to come to visit us, and are excited to see what God will do in the days ahead.”

Our story

Emmanuel Church was founded in 1980 and is part of the Regions Beyond family of churches. We met in various locations around Durham until moving into our first permanent home, TDC, in 2009.

David Campbell, who founded the church, will return to speak at TEC’s Grand Opening Celebration.

We have has links across the globe and are also active locally, in social action projects and supporting local communities. As well as over 100 children and young people, we have thriving community groups, known as Emmanuel Communities, and over 50 student members.

You’re invited!

We would warmly invite you to join us for TEC’s Grand Opening Celebration on Sunday 21st May from 10.30am.

James' intern update

James Wakefield is spending a year serving God and the church as an intern. Here’s his latest intern update:

“It’s been another brilliant month serving as the intern. I’ve had my STEPs day as part of the Freedom in Christ course which has been so helpful in my walk with God; committing to praying over my past, present and future experiences across a 6 hour session!

I’ve also really enjoyed serving the Durham Christian Union during the events week MORE as an Emmanuel guest. We welcomed in hundreds of non-christians to talks on some of the big questions in life, and explored the Gospel of John with them.

God’s been guiding me through leading many worship sets from the Deeper conference, to Sunday mornings, Sunday evening HUB sessions and also a new lent initiative of singing in the streets everyday.

I’m really excited to see what he’s doing over this next month as students finish the term and I engage more with whole church family activities.