HISTORY
Our founding Pastors Paul and Gail Chamberlain began Calvary Church, as we were formerly called, in May 1985 and we held our first Sunday Service in the October of that year in Blanford Mere Primary School. Paul and Gail’s passion was always to reach the kids and young people of Kingswinford, Wall Heath and the surrounding areas and so a Sunday School began around the same time called ‘Breakaway’. From there the church grew and grew and grew and before long we moved from the school hall (in 1991) into our first, purpose built, Church building.
we moved from the school hall (in 1991) into our first, purpose built, church building.
From there, the influence and impact of Calvary Church continued to increase and we have seen God do some amazing things over the years. Provision of finance meant that we could employ Pastor Paul to work full-time for the Church and over the years our staff has increased as we were also able to employ a number of people to help us increase the work we do in the surrounding community.
over the years our staff has increased as we were also able to employ a number of people to help us increase the work we do in the community.
In recent times we have had a change of leadership as Pastors Paul and Gail both retired which saw Paul hand the Senior Leadership of the Church over to our current Pastor, Andy Aston, in January 2016. Although this church has only been in existence for 31 years or so, we look back with great memories of what God has done through a few faithful people who were crazy enough to start from scratch and grow this church from nothing. We are so excited to see what the next 30 years holds for this community. We have had books released from this church, albums written and recorded, but most importantly, we have seen lives changed and people discover their identity and purpose on this earth. It’s all been part of the adventure and history of what is now called Arise Church.