God called Tim and Allison Brown with Paul and Joanne Foden and their families to move down from Scotland. Tim had started a job in Young Offenders prison education in charge of the Remand Class. After a couple of weeks, a lecturer called Graeme who was in charge of the paints workshop asked him to sit down for a cup of tea. “So why have you come to work in the prison?” he asked. “I haven’t really wanted to work here. I’ve moved down from Scotland to start a church” Tim replied. That evening Graeme went out to play snooker with his old school friend Billy. “What’s new at the prison?” his mate asked. “There’s a new guy who has moved down to Newcastle to start a church from Scotland” said Graeme. “Really?? Me Mam’s going to want to meet him”, said Billy. “She’s been praying for years for someone to come down from Scotland to start a church in Newcastle.”
So the next evening the two friends, Graeme and Billy brought Lily ‘the Mam’ round to meet Tim and Allison. “When are you going to start this church?” Lily asked. “Well we’ve only just arrived, we haven’t got a venue yet…” Tim began to explain. ‘Well get on with it because I want to come” she said. So with Lily’s words ringing in their ears Tim and Paul and their spouses went into Newcastle city centre next Saturday and began to pray for God’s help.
Paul went into a coffee shop on Northumberland Street and asked “Do you have a room we could meet in?” The manager said “Come into my office” then sat down at his desk, got out a pen and began to write on a piece of A4 paper. “Excuse me what are you doing?” asked Tim. “Just a moment… there you are” said the shop manager handing over the piece of paper. “What’s this for?” said Paul. “It’s a list of all the coffee shops and cafes with either a basement or an upstairs room you could meet in - I’ve been round them all, as I have been trying to get Planning Permission for my shop. Here you are.” First on the list was Costa Coffee in Grey Street. The manager at Costa said “As long as everyone buys a drink, you can have the place for free” So that’s how we got going.

The Church started in September 2007 meeting in Costa Coffee Grey Street with two families plus Lilly, Graeme and Billy. The meeting then grew and moved to the Holy Jesus Hospital, Eldon Leisure, the City Library, & the County Hotel before our present venue at St Vincent’s Centre. In April 2023 we started a new group in Blyth. This has grown to around 25 people and we are really pleased with how both Newcastle and Blyth Churches are going on.

When our family and the Foden’s who started the church with us moved down from Scotland, all our children were teenagers. So with Graeme and Billy and their children we started playing 5 A Side at the West Road and some of those footballers and their families then started to come to church with us from the area. We have grown through word of mouth, evangelism and people just coming along and liking what they found.  

Gospel Community Church is a mainstream Christian church. It is part of a network or family of churches called Go Global. This means there is a wider sense of purpose, a place to appeal if there is a problem at local level and ongoing training and advice to participating churches. We belong to the Evangelical Alliance, Good News for Everyone (formerly The Gideons who give away Bibles) and the Tyneside Leaders Forum comprising of around 100 leaders from churches across Tyneside. As a church everyone is welcome to come and everyone has to embrace change. We look to cultivate good relationships with all organisations we come in contact with, and hope we have built a good reputation for the Lord who we serve.

The focus of our meetings is for people to find Jesus and grow as a Christian. This means there is lively guitar based modern music, and a short preached message from the Bible with practical application for everyday living. The younger children go to their own meeting / Sunday School after the singing for crafts, games and Bible based stories. They also produce dance routines and songs for special events like Christmas and Easter. Our workers in this field are DBS checked, as are both the Pastors. There is an appeal for people to give their lives to Jesus at the end of every meeting and also the opportunity for personal prayer. We believe the Holy Spirit is active and able to heal people today and have witnessed many remarkable healings and miracles (e.g. instant cataract removals verified by letter from the consultant, etc etc). People often want to share what God has done in their lives in the meetings. There is always an opportunity for refreshments at the end of each meeting so people can chat and socialise. The aim is for people to build strong friendships and combat the scourge of loneliness. Midweek we have an online Zoom prayer meeting and different groups that meet up. The emphasis is on a living relationship with God and that should lead people to see God at work in their lives and bring them joy, peace and a positive change.

Streetworx - helping the Homeless - is our social action wing, helping street homeless in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Paul and Joanne started with a flask and some ‘Whoops label’ sandwiches from Asda going round the streets. Collections of food, clothing, toiletries, sleeping bags etc are made throughout the week via our Facebook page Streetworx which has around 7,000 followers. The biggest need is on Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings when there is little / no provision, so that is when our teams of volunteers go out 7-9PM and 8-10AM. These teams are a mixture of people who don’t come to church and folks who do. Anyone can come and get trained. Children can come Sunday mornings with their parents and many parents say this has a sobering and educational effect on their young people. To volunteer on Saturday nights participants must be 16 and over for safety reasons. As well as on the streets there is a big requirement for volunteers to receive & sort goods at our storage facility, organise fundraising events, and lots of unseen back room functions. We are very grateful to all our teams who help in this way. It is also a delight to see our street friends who transition into hostels or housing and some even return to help on the Streetworx teams on Saturdays and Sundays. Please take a look at our Streetworx Facebook page and give us a like if you like it!

Gospel Community Church Newcastle is a Registered Charity: 1134332 and a Registered Company: 06926769. Entering either of these numbers into the Government website will show all the information held about our Charity / Company and show our history of filings, income etc. These links are also at the bottom of every page of our website www.GCCHURCH.UK as these are a matter of the public record and we believe in being an open and transparent organisation. Public indemnity insurance is provided through Ansvar in case of possible eventualities. Our accounts are put together by our finance team which are ‘live monitored’ through Sage by accountants Kinnair and Co, Westerhope, Newcastle upon Tyne for overview / reports and checking before submission to the Charity Commission and Companies House.


In Gospel Community Church Blyth all of our participants come from in or around the area - apart from myself and Allison who travel up from Newcastle. Our aim is to develop a strong local leadership to run the church here in the short to medium term. There is a multicultural mix - bring your culture to the party! We love the richness and interaction that this brings. We have met people who started coming through Worship on the Streets (guitar based music in the town centre) and through chatting to and inviting people. There are cleaners, cyber security consultants, bus drivers, school support workers, and Masters Degree Students to name a few of the backgrounds people have. We have a wide spread of ages from preschool, primary and teenagers as well as working people and older people. In this way it gives a sense of family and community. We would welcome any staff or pupils who wanted to come along and participate. We would look to see a growing group of teenagers in Blyth who could interact with counterparts in Newcastle. The Bottom Line is: Everyone is welcome…