Our History

The Christian Church traces its origins back to Jesus Christ's great commission to 'go and make disciples of all nations'. Although the particular branch of Christianity known as Pentecostalism officially arrived on the scene in the early 1900s, our heritage is to be found among some of the medieval 'heretics' who dared to speak out against a corrupt Church, in the reformation, in the puritans, in Wesley's Methodists and in the Holiness groups of the nineteenth century.

In Blackburn in particular, the Elim Pentecostals' origins are to be found in an evangelistic crusade of the 1920s, in which Stephen Jeffries preached the gospel and healed the sick. Hundreds were converted and the resultant Bethel Evangelical Church was formed.

The photo shows a side profile of George Jeffries, the brother of Stephen, and the founder of the Elim movement.

In the 1940s, the church appointed Mr Stanley Beresford as its pastor. Mr Beresford became a well-known Bible teacher and preached all around Britain, America and elsewhere with his model of the tabernacle.

Although retiring from the pastorate in the early 1980s, he remained a member of the church until he was called home in 2006.

During much of this time, the fellowship met at Copy Nook. Note the wooden props attempting to keep the building up!

The church was financially very poor in those days, as the state of the building suggests, but the gospel was faithfully preached, and the fellowship was rich in spiritual blessing.

In 1980, a new building on Park Road was built in a place that had previously been occupied by terraced housing.

The picture shows the building in which we still meet being consecrated to God.

The building has since been extended.