The story of Renovate Life Church…our journey so far!
Pastor Ann Strickland first moved to the area in 2008 after serving as a Senior Minister for many years at Today’s Community Church in Wigan. It was obvious after a couple of weeks that the churches in the area had no 18-35 yr olds. This generation were missing in every church she visited and so something had to be done!
As Ann cried out to God asking Him to do something with the young people of Lytham St. Anne’s, God replied, “YOU do something!!” And so Renovate was born!
On June 1st 2008 Renovate started in Ann’s apartment on Clifton Drive but it was obvious after a couple of months that bigger premises was going to be needed. Ann went to view a number of premises but then God provided the perfect place…a prestigious nightclub in St. Anne’s called JOYA. What a great opportunity to reach the needy young people with the Gospel in a place where most of them frequented on a Friday and Saturday n
ight! Renovate Rock Church met every Sunday evening at 7pm till 9pm and we had our amazing launch party on Sunday 28th September 2008 with over 100 people attending!
We had ‘Ignite’ our street dancers and many talented musicians…all was goin
g well…until in the New Year of 2009 , JOYA went into administration and ceased trading. Without a meeting point we set out to find new premises!
- Renovate Life Church’s first morning service in Ann’s apartment!
It had been becoming obvious though that people young and old were drawn to Renovate’s contemporary church style, where ‘No Perfect People were Allowed.’ We prayed about what to do and God spoke loud and clear, “Enlarge your tent…stretch out to the left and to the right.” So enlarge our tent we did and Renovate Life Church, a generational family church was born! Again we started meeting in Ann’s apartment but yet again that only lasted a few months as we needed somewhere bigger to meet!
The Dalmeny Hotel became the home for Renovate Life Church and on Sunday 1st March we held our offical launch service. Unfortunately the Dalmeny guests were none too happy about our exuberant worship and dynamic preaching so after meeting there for only a couple of weeks we had to move on again!
The Island on St. Anne’s promenade was an ideal solution. Using what was the old casino hall we continued to met and worship together and held our first service there on Sunday 5th April 2009.
The Island was an enormous building with so much potential and so working closely with the owner Paul, Renovate began to raise the profile of the Island by holding events like ‘Stars in Your Eyes,’ charity event and hosting Bill Wilson, the world famous evangelist, to the Island with over 500 people attending. Satan however is never happy about a growing church making an impact and so in September 2009 we were informed by Paul than unfortunately the Island had gone into administration and we had to empty our store cupboard before the bailiffs came! We were shocked but nothing takes God by surprise so trusting Him we moved out and prayed for what should be our next step. We were sad to leave the Island but we knew that somehow God would make a way for Renovate to met there again…
Homeless yet again we approached the YMCA in St. Anne’s to accommodate us. By now we were known as somewhat of a ‘gypsy church’ as we’d had to move around so much but to be honest it didn’t really bother us ‘Renovators’ as the Church of Jesus Christ is the people not the building. When the word ‘church’ typically comes to mind people might think of pews, stained glass windows, altars and vicars but in reality the ‘church’ described in the Bible were simply the gatherings of Christians. Buildings simply facilitate us being able to get together on a larger scale so all ready lined up in a suite at the YMCA, Renovate Life Church pressed forward.
Whilst at the YMCA, Renovate started to make some enquiries into purchasing the Island complex which we had just come from. We knew that the building had massive potential to be a real touch base for the community with lots of facilities that could support the local people. We started speaking to financial backers, local hoteliers and viewing other local leisure centres to gather ideas and draft plans. Our Vision for the Island was to rejuvenate The Island at St Annes into a dynamic leisure destination and community hub. With plans submitted to the council and funds being raised we just had to wait. A fortnight before we were due to hear about whether our planning permission was passed we heard the news…The Island had been bought by someone else! Some of our leaders and young people were at Audacious Conference when we found out. Although deeply disappointed we knew that God had EVERYTHING under control so we just continued to trust Him. Our Pastor Ann had also recently found out that she had skin cancer in her chin and lower lip. Ann was to spend the following months undergoing very unpleasant treatment to try to reduce the cancer cells and so in hindsight (God certainly does know best!) it seemed like purchasing the Island came around at just the wrong time as Ann, who was spearheading the whole proposal, was out of action for a number of months.
With Ann unwell running the church was a real challenge especially as we were still a relatively small congregation. We desperately wanted a place of our own so that we could really use it as a base to help the community and so in October 2010 we moved to Willow Lodge which was a residential home large enough to house Ann whilst she was poorly, the church and our new Youth Pastor, Paul Faulkner.
Ever since Ann found out she had cancer the church never ceased to pray! People who knew her from around the world were also praying that she would be healed and return to building God’s kingdom. The treatment that she undertook was unsuccessful and she was now faced with having surgery to remove the cancer cells and then having a skin graft to reconstruct her chin and mouth. She would be unable to serve as a minister for months, possibly years! Ann isn’t the type of person who takes news like that lying down so standing firmly on the Word of God she knew that ‘by His stripes we are healed.’ Finally the day came when Ann had to see her consultant and they did a scan of her face. To the consultant and everyone’s amazement the cancer had completely gone!!!!! We were all overjoyed and couldn’t stop praising God for the incredible miracle He performed!
With Ann back on track it was time to get Renovate Life Church on the move again because as useful as Willow Lodge had been whilst Ann was unwell- it was far to small and wouldn’t enable us to grow. We started looking for premises again when we approached the owner of Tiggi’s, St Anne’s who had taken over JOYA after it went into administration. He was trading in the restaurant but the nightclub and large bar/function area was unused and empty. He agreed to rent this area to us which was AMAZING because it was right in the centre of St. Anne’s which would enable us to really have a presence and reach out to the community again. We handed in our notice on Willow Lodge and started preparing to move back to JOYA. Three weeks before we were due to move across…JOYA had a buyer interested in purchasing the building so we are unable to move in as it could jeopardise the sale! We just couldn’t believe how much resistance we were facing trying to make a difference to the lives of men, women, boys and girls of St. Anne’s! Unperturbed though we put on our full armour of God and headed back to the YMCA!
On the 1st of May 2011 we met together again at the YMCA in the Pickett suite. We recently celebrated the third anniversary of the church and its just simply incredible the journey that God is taking us on! Like a sail boat we know that in order to get to your destination you have to ‘tac’ this way and then that way…our journey has certainly had its twists and turns but we know that we need not fear because our God is always with us!
So what’s next? Well with over 70 people belonging to Renovate , countless others coming to a relationship with Jesus through our ministry…who knows…but one thing is for sure…with God by our side its bound to be an amazing ride so why not come and join us!
Renovate Life Church meets every Sunday morning 10.30am in the Pickett suite, YMCA.
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