Community Church has been a vibrant city centre church since 2001, although in reality we have been in existence for a lot longer than that.

Our roots go back to a Pentecostal Church.  In the 1970’s, an Elim church called City Temple, was a growing and vibrant church, which a number of young people and students part of the church.  During this time, significant changes were happening in the church, which many church nowadays would take for granted, but at the time were really radical.  The church moved into a great deal of freedom in worship and relationship,  and from legalism and rigidity.

In 1977 a new church was established, called Edinburgh City Fellowship (or ECF as it became affectionately known).  It was part of a number of new churches or what became known as house churches, that were established in towns and cities around the UK at the time.  They were generally charismatic evangelical churches, with an orthodox Christian faith, but expressing that faith in a contemporary way.  There are still people part of Community Church who were involved in City Temple and the early days of ECF!

During the 80’s and 90’s, in the midst of the inevitable ups and downs of church life,  the church grew and was involved in some significant events: organising visits of John Wimber, Paul Cain, Jack Deere and others; facilitating renewal in the mid 90’s, starting a Christian School, and charity to care for people with learning disabilities, and planting some new churches.

The Church also bought The King’s Hall in 1985 from another church that was merging with another congregation.  The building was refurbished, creating a contemporary building for the church.  Community Church still occupies the building, and are once again in the process of updating the building for the needs of the “missional church” we are becoming.

In 2001, after a rather inglorious period of our history amidst some significant disagreement of vision and values, the church was re-formed, changing it name.  Although the manner of the church being formed wasn’t ideal, it did mark a watershed for the church, with some significant changes happening to our values, perhaps most noticeably to the leadership style and ethos of pastoral care.

Although we probably didn’t realise it at the time, it propelled us into asking some serious questions of the kind of church God is calling us to be in 21st century Edinburgh.  We still don’t have all the answers, but we are looking to be a church that engages with our wider communities, serving, blessing and being Good News to them.  We sense that God is changing the face of the church in the UK, and we are excited, and slightly daunted, to be part of that journey.  One the key phrases for us in the early days of Community Church was we are going “off the map”.  We aren’t polished, we aren’t finished, we aren’t sure what it will look like, but we are up for the journey…

Watch this space for how it unfolds…