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As a church family we want everyone to be able to experience the life-changing love of God and be released to become who they were made to be.
Wherever you are on your journey of faith, we’d love to welcome you.
We value people in the same way that God does, uniquely made and blessed, creating a safe place for people to feel loved and honoured. We want everyone to feel cherished, significant and known, as this is our experience of God.
We desire His presence and his power to change our lives and our world. For Him to move us and among us. We desire the fresh revelation His Spirit brings through His word. We know our need and dependency on Him. We aim to keep the unity in spirit within Waterbrook and across the churches of Bristol.
We believe God’s love is be experienced, not just head knowledge. We want Him to build our character, to be people of integrity, being open to God and to each other, to be people of intimacy with God as modelled to us by Jesus.
Luke is the new church leader here at Waterbrook. He has led Elim churches in South Wales and Cheltenham & have been on team in Bristol. Luke has been chaplain to the mayor of Cheltenham, helped a church plant in Oxford and most recently, has worked for Bristol Noise Charity, developing ways to resource churches across Bristol in serving their local communities.
luke@waterbrook.org.uk
Samantha has worked in the hospitality industry, Care for the Family, and was the centre manager for the church in Cheltenham. Sam now works as a senior administrator for North Bristol & South Glos Foodbank. Together, Sam & Luke have one daughter, Lexi.
Paul has been at Waterbrook since it moved into Begbrook School in 2010, where he came with his wife Mel. He has a powerful testimony as well as relationship with God which is seen in his preaching. He has led Alpha with his wife Mel; a course for those learning about faith. They have 2 children who are part of the church.
Mel is spontaneous, bubbly and has contagious joy. She will always greet you warmly whenever you walk through the door. Mel is also involved in children ministry and enthusiastic about creating opportunities for children to learn about God in new ways. Mel also serves as a hospital chaplain.
Tom is relaxed, friendly and wise. He joined the pastoral team in spring 2019. His pastoral heart has been seen and loved by all of the church. Tom is a good communicator and is able to convey clearly how the gospel relates to modern thoughts and philosophies. He is a reflective thinker.
Waterbrook Church have a clear set of beliefs that we follow as a church together.
Firstly we should say we believe that Jesus is exactly who He said He is, the Saviour of the world, who gave His life to set people free from all the offences and crimes they have committed against God.
Without this rescuing by Jesus people are separated from God both now and forever. Jesus gave His life so that we could come to know God. We believe that everyone needs this forgiveness, but the good news is that Jesus gave His life so that everyone could receive it.
We believe that it is a vital part of the ministry of the church to encourage believers to draw near to God in worship, to encourage each other and to share in the Communion together.
We therefore believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit remain an important part of the Church’s ministry today, to encourage the believers, but also as evidence of God’s power to others. We believe that through the working of God’s Holy Spirit, and on the basis of what Jesus did, it is possible for God to do amazing things in people’s lives and that prayer changes things!
Our beliefs follow the Evangelical Alliance statement of faith, you can read this in full on the Evangelical Alliance website.
As a Church we believe that it is really important to partner in the gospel by supporting mission organisations who both proclaim the good news of Jesus and share hope and love with those in need.
David Chaudhary Ministries was formed out of a vision God gave David that he could make a difference to disadvantaged children in India and that God would give him the ability to do it, very much based on the widow who kept pouring out the oil until there were no pots left.
Our gifts support the regular running of the home and our larger one off gifts support special projects. Stephen Chaudhary visited Waterbrook on 14th May 2023 to share an update with us.
Univida is an amazing work among the poor and vulnerable kids in slums of Fortaleza in Brazil. Through arts and other forms of education they provide 4 hours a day additional education for the children who otherwise may be caught up in gangs, drugs or prostitution. Marc Marques is the founder.
We got to know them through other local churches support of them. It is an inspiring mission to get behind. They visit every other year and their last visit was in May 2022.
You can find out more from their website.
SIFT is an amazing charity which supports the poor and vulnerable in Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the world. We support SIFT because we were close to the founder Dick Bell who set up the work and founded the Charity in 2002. Dick is an an incredible guy and like others we support felt God wanted him to do something about what he saw in Nicaragua. We knew Dick because our youth at the time went to a youth camp called Upcott founded by his wife Eileen and Dick was great with the young people.
SIFT help children through their education, help whole communities with projects and bring medical care to the country. It is this latter project that we fund each month. Doctor Sandra trains nurses and together they provided much needed health care and health education to the Nicaragua’s poorest people.
You can find out more about them on their website.
Daniel and Anna were born in India but came to the UK in 2001 after their marriage. Daniel’s parents pioneered a missionary work in India and Daniel and Anna felt a call of God in around 2014 to carry this on. We felt it was right to continue the support we had previously given. Their ministry includes a school and a church. Daniel and Anna now live in the UK but travel regularly to India for extended stays to oversee and develop the work.
There have been many challenges they have faced including to their heath and regarding the ownership of the land, but they have seen both the church and school grow as well as reaching out in a difficult environment. The Lord continues to provide for them and we are pleased to partner with them. Daniel and Anna from time to time visit Waterbrook to update us as well as sending messages concerning the ministry. Their most recent visit was July 9th 2023.
In India we also have a close link with a group of churches in Kollom, Kerala. In the group of churches there are 8 pastors under the leadership of Joy Benjamin and his brother in law Jo Vest. Jo’s father, who is also the father of Joy’s wife Jackie founded the work many years ago.
Joy came to the UK and was trained in the role of pastor by Christians in Action. It was through this time that Joy made contacts with Christians in Bristol who joined the predecessor church to Waterbrook. We have supported Joy and the churches on a monthly basis ever since. Every few years he comes to the UK and Joy and Tony have made two visits to India.
Dennis and Charmian live and work in Lima, Peru, leading a local church which has missions into areas of extreme poverty in Lima, church-planting in the Amazon Rainforest and outreach to the high Andes. Centro de Fuego church is multicultural and has a vision for revival – personal, national and to the nations. Charmian is an English teacher at one of Lima’s most prestigious schools, teaching many of Peru’s future leaders.
Their ministry involves working amongst the poor and the people who live in the mountains and forests in fact anywhere they feel the call of God to support. They train people to do outreach in the mountains, reaching people who may not have heard the gospel.
We have had a connection with the Filadephia Church in Iasi since it began 25 years ago.
When the change from communism happened, Margie Fforde, who was part of our church then, went to Romania to encourage local enterprise. This was not successful but when she came back she asked if we would adopt the Serediuc family ( David and Stratica) with support. They had formed an independent church and had 6 children and lived in a northern city called Iasi. We have enjoyed several visits to Iasi and David and Stratica have visited Waterbrook twice.
Their Sunday meetings are in a city centre location where they aim to bring the gospel to a city that is principally loyal to the Orthodox religion. Their mid week meetings are in a church house which we helped them buy and establish.