News / Events

Our History

On 1 July 2004 Chellow Christian Fellowship became an independent church in its own right, having been an outreach project from Sunbridge Road Mission for more than ten years. It began with five adults (only two of whom are still with us) and a small team of teenagers (most of whom are now in ministry in the UK or overseas), praying for and visiting homes of contacts made through visiting every one of the 800 homes on the Haworth Road estate. A Summer Holiday Club in a marquee on the local recreation ground was the forerunner of a highly successful weekly Children's Bible Club in the canteen building of Heather Grove First School, which attracted an average of 60 children every week.

Problems with vandalism to the outside of the building by older children led to the premises being no longer available, but this was a blessing in disguise. Nine months of weekly prayer followed, from which emerged two house-based Bible Clubs, 'The J-Team' and 'G-Force'. These brought over twenty regulars (the home's physical capacity) to each club every week, and several of these children have made decisions to follow Jesus. The clubs are now based at Heaton Primary School's Woodland Building on Wednesday evenings. The vast majority of the children come from non-Christian homes and don't attend church, but such is their commitment to the clubs that there have always been waiting lists for both age groups.

Alongside this work with children, regular Alpha courses saw adults come into a living relationship with Jesus Christ and brought into home-based discipleship groups. Everyone attending the church was encouraged to go through a two-year discipleship programme entitled 'Walking with God'. These were followed by teaching based on 'Victory over the Darkness' and 'The Bondage Breaker' by Neil Anderson (now Freedom in Christ), which enabled people to realise just who they were in Christ and to move on into true victory over their past lives.

As a church we are now organised on Cell Church principles, with each person allocated to a midweek meeting where the 4 W's (Welcome, Worship, Word, Witness) are used to "prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12, 13)

Ministry

Pastors Derek & Linda Carver relate locally to Pastor Paul Hubbard (Christian Life Church, Shipley) and Pastor Andrew Popplewell (Cedar Tree Church, Laisterdyke); to ‘Prayer for Bradford’ within the city and ‘Together in His Purpose’ regionally.