New church in Castle Donington 

A new Baptist church officially launched in the rapidly growing Leicestershire town on Sunday (9 September), the culmination of several years of prayer 

Castle Donington Community Church officially came into being during an evening service which also saw the induction of its minister, the Revd Roy Monks, and 300 people attend. 
 
The journey began after a group of Baptist ministers in the Soar Valley started to explore the possibility of planting a new church. After much prayer, talking and consulting, Castle Donington was identified as the place: the town is near East Midlands Airport and is expanding rapidly with hundreds of new houses being built and new industries being attracted.
 
A small Baptist community has been worshipping in the town for decades, but it was felt that a new church would better serve God’s purposes.
 
And so plans were set in place to raise the necessary funds and call a leader/evangelist/minister. Roy was appointed in May this year.
 
Roy (pictured) said that having been the minister at Ibstock Baptist Church in Leicestershire for the last seven years, experiencing great blessing with many baptisms, new building work and a growing membership, he had no plans to move.
 
However, ‘The Lord of course had other ideas.’
 
‘Having attended the regular monthly Baptist ministers meeting to pray about finding someone for a new pioneer church in Castle Donington we all felt a little discouraged,’ Roy said, ‘because over quite a long period we couldn’t seem to find the right person to fill the post.
 
‘One of the ministers just before we began to pray asked me if I felt it might be me. I completely rejected the idea, stating that I was very settled in my own church and had no reason to move.
 
“God” I said, “would need to write it in the sky if he wanted me to do this as I had no earthly reason to leave my current church.”
 
‘In the middle of our prayer time my phone buzzed to say I had received a message. I ignored it while we were praying, thinking it might be a pastoral issue, but on opening the message at the end of prayers my mouth fell open in shock and amazement.
 
‘The message, from a friend who didn’t know we were meeting or praying or anything about a new church, read:
 

Roy, the Lord keeps bringing you to me to give you a word of encouragement. I don't understand it and am not trying to. He says you have a dilemma that he is talking to you about, something important in your life and ministry, and you are not sure whether to pursue it or not. He says it’s from him, even though it seems like a sidestep.
 
However trust him in this as it is an exciting chapter in your ministry with endless fruit in the kingdom of God.

 
‘The whole room stood astounded. God hadn't written it in the sky but had instead sent an email from HQ.
 
‘I left the room in a daze knowing that the Lord had truly spoken to me in a most astounding way. Other confirmations were to follow and a particular one that allowed my wife to see that this was truly of the Lord.
 
‘In the last few months God has brought nearly 40 local people together to pray in a shop in Donington every Wednesday morning, a place he miraculously provided.
 
‘We have already led one person to Christ and held successful praise night in a local club which saw non-Christians coming forward for prayer and ministry, and we hadn’t even officially started!'

Around 300 people attended the launch and induction, which was led by the Revd Mark Clay, regional minister team leader of the East Midlands Baptist Association. Writing on the church's Facebook page, Roy said, ''Amazing night!! 300 people came from all over, as far away as Wales!! Move of the spirit.'

He added, ‘It's all very exciting and we wait in faith and anticipation for all that the Lord is about to do.’

Follow the church on Facebook