About Grace

We’re a thriving church made up of people from all walks of life, committed to loving God and loving people.

We have been serving the communities of Kempston and Bedford for over 45 years and are passionate about telling people about the Lord Jesus and seeing our town flourish.

As a church, we usually meet in the Addison Centre on a Sunday, but also run groups for all ages throughout the week right across the town.

Whatever your family shape - single mum, elderly couple or 2.4 children - you are very welcome at Grace.

Grace
The infinite love, mercy, favour, and goodwill shown to humanity by God. We are more deeply flawed than we can imagine, yet we are at the same time more deeply loved than we ever dared hope.

Community
Our primary responsibility is to love and care for the people we live amongst. Many of us live in and around the town which needs to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and see His love in action through His follower’s service.

Church
Those who trust in and follow Jesus. It is all about a community or family of Christians who love and serve Him, and so are also committed to each other.

Where did it all begin?

Grace Community Church was formed in 1972 by twelve Christian believers who had a vision for a church that was relevant, contemporary and Biblical.

God has been wonderfully generous to the church both in terms of facilities and leadership, as it has grown over nearly 50 years to more than 500 people. We have moved several times to enable continued growth, planted other churches and in 2008 began meeting at the Addison Centre, our present home.

The church is a mainstream Christian church, holding to the evangelical Christian faith. It is affiliated to the FIEC (the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches) along with 600 other churches in the UK and fully agrees with the Confession of Faith of that group of churches (www.fiec.org.uk).

The church has always actively supported numerous overseas projects, from Switzerland to the Seychelles, and with a particular heart for the people of Africa.

Other exciting milestones include opening our Kempston Church Office at Project 229 in 2004, enabling us to work very closely with many groups serving the local community. In the past eight years this local community hub has proven invaluable in our efforts to support many individuals and families from the town.

One of these efforts has been through The NET, a support group helping isolated families in the community, together with the Well-Woman workshops, giving women time and space to think, as well as numerous other courses and small groups.

Some years ago Balliol Lower School approached us to co-fund a family support worker at the school, and in 2010 the church opened a Christians Against Poverty CAP Centre. Christians Against Poverty is a national charity helping people struggling with the issue of debt.

The Borough Council have partnered with us in running larger events in the community, such as Chill in the Park and Carols in the Park, both giving great opportunities to celebrate God’s goodness to us with local people.