Our story - Our DNA
Our current church culture and unique features emerge out of a mix of all the people who have been part of the church over it’s 200 year history; their passions, their interests and their influences.
Compassion and Practical Action
A church built in the slums of Westbourne Grove
The church was built in the 1850s when the area was a slum full of families working to service London: shipping manure and hay on the canal, making bricks to build the town, washing the city’s undies, many often were drinking themselves to death … the shopkeepers, builders, businessmen, and merchants who built the church established it right in the middle of the slums and started to help people. That nature is in our genes. When we had a reunion of people from every decade all the way back to the 1930s - every generation of the church spoke of the ways in which the church involved themselves with the community and found ways to help.
Education and the Temperance Movement
In the early days, there were things such as developing Sunday Schools i.e., schools on Sundays – which had over 600 scholars of both sexes and all ages at a time when few could read or write, particularly women and when education was a way out of poverty. The church had a library of 500 volumes for all to use. The Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Society gave support to those trying to educate and better themselves and campaigned strongly with the Temperance Movement to help those with alcohol addiction.
Advocacy and serving the Poor
For over 150 years the church has helped provide for local poor families and neighbours. Our church records recall that on one year during the 1860’s the Mothers’ Meeting provided clothes for 200 local poor women and their families. Throughout its history, the church has offered community meals: from the soup kitchens providing coals and bread to families in the 1800s through to the homemade cakes and omelettes that we now offer to our homeless friends at our Monday drop-ins and Lobby Lunches. Advocacy and fighting for justice are still central to who we are as a church. We offer one-to-one help and support for local people, host art exhibitions supporting humanitarian causes, offer our halls at cost price rate to those who want to raise money for charity and our Mission and Giving team give our money away to help people, ministries and missionaries all around the world.
Helping and feeding one another is in our genes
Celebrating our differences
We are a church that celebrates our differences and enjoys exploring how, together, we can express to the world something of who God is and how He is working in the world.
In living history Notting Hill became a mixing pot area of London with people coming to live here from all over the world and the rich living side by side with the poorest. The church has long reflected this eclectic mix of people and in the last 30 years has included people from over 30 nations in its congregation.
People from every background, the homeless, the city banker, those with learning difficulties, those with university educations, those with mental illness or physical disability, people from Baptist, Methodist, Church of England, Eastern Orthodox, House church, and Catholic churches, Quaker meetings and of no church background – we come together each having our part to play, all learning from one another. What a lot we bring one another.
A CHURCH THAT IS PASSIONATE ABOUT THE WORD OF GOD AND MISSION
Hudson Taylor and Charles Spurgeon
The Bible is an amazing book - we believe it’s inspired by God! It’s the story of what God is like, and God’s on-going plan to bless humans across history. It’s also a very practical and helpful book, as it reveals to us God’s wisdom on how to live really well as humans and follow God as a community.
Here at The Grove, our deep-seated desire to explore the bible, and to grow in our understanding of the God of the bible, has historically always had a practical outworking. This is to know God better and so to reflect God together as a community of people so that together we can live in ways that express to those around us the nature and goodness of God. To know God and to make Him known.
These things reflect a long tradition of faith and community hailing from our Baptist roots. In the 1800’s church members such as Charles Spurgeon and missionary Hudson Taylor, and the other founders of our church explored faith, encouraged others by bible teaching and missionary work and among other things started the China Inland Mission (now OMF International), and the London Baptist Association. You can read about some of their work in our history pages. The Grove today, is actively serving the local community in many ways and through our Mission and Giving Team giving fund we support charities and missions throughout the UK and around the world. We have strong links with the King’s School of Theology, and support the Bible Project. We work closely with local YWAM teams, and support Operation Mobilisation, a Bible College in Pakistan, and village bible study groups in the Philippines.
A church that celebrates the arts
From right back in the 1800s the church was a local centre for the arts, hosting recitals and concerts featuring world-renowned singers such as and campanological entertainment.
In Notting Hill artists congregate. Over the last 30 or so years our church community has included many who have used their artistic skills to help us to explore Christianity: expressing the nature of God in art exhibitions, in worship, and in the architectural redevelopment of our church building. We hold art, jewellery, ceramics, sculpture, fine arts, and poetry exhibitions, and we commission works of art for our building that express the beauty and nature of God.
Our Film Club screens films and discusses them and learns from them. Musicians among us have hosted gigs in our halls and have written symphonies about Antarctica to be performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. We have a rich and creative history and exposure to the arts. People come and go in London, they move on. Not so many among us now are musicians and artists but the creativity is now in our genes and expressed in how we explore Christianity and life together.
ArtSpace is going strong exhibiting among other things ceramics, sculpture and installations, fine arts, poetry and photography. The posters we commission are photographed by passers-by and at Christmas many drop-in just to admire our angel decorations. The Ballet School dances, our homeless photographer friends exhibit their photos, and we enjoy the poetry of our Poet in Residence – Katherine Venn. The future looks rich with possibilities…
We are a church with a love of and care for the natural world
We are a church who are inspired by the beautiful world that God has made and desire to partner with God in being good stewards of the world. Among us are people who plant trees to re-establish native forests, who work on Co2 capture schemes, people who are nature photographers, cold water swimmers, dog lovers, elephant savers, bird watchers, plant eaters, and hill walkers. Nature inspires us to worship, and to thankfulness, we glimpse God through it and are restored and refreshed. We have a strong desire to learn to look after our world with the love and care God intended.
Church members have funded the planting of over 1500 trees in Dundreggan Forest. The forest is part of the Trees for Life Scottish re-wilding project. Over 4000 species of plants and animals now live in the forest including many rare and endangered species. We are excited to be part of rewilding our country’s forests.
