Church History

Turners Hill Free Church has been in Turners Hill for over 300 years.  Originally a baptist congregation, it was revived in 1824 as Bethel Chapel by members of Zion Chapel in East Grinstead. This church plant was a result of the great Evangelical Revival of the 18th Century.  THFC was part of a large group of Calvinistic Methodist churches founded by the Countess of Huntingdon who had come to faith under the ministry of George Whitefield.  She used her wealth and influence to train ministers in the new Methodist style of ministry and plant churches throughout England.

Today our heritage still informs our church life.  We are Reformed and Charismatic in our theology, emphasising personal faith in Christ, living experience of the work of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of God’s Word as foundational for the Christian life.  Moreover, we are actively involved in training men and women to preach the Gospel and start new churches in unreached parts of the world.

But, as much as we have roots in the past, that doesn’t mean we are stuck there.  Immense cultural changes present an unprecedented challenge to today’s Church in the UK.  With this in mind we are committed to reforming the church today, prayerfully before God, in accordance with Scripture and in humble submission to orthodox doctrine and wider Church tradition.  Our confident hope is that as churches deepen their understanding of the faith and what it means to be Christ’s Church, God will bring another revival to our nation.

Turners Hill 1905

Turners Hill, Present Day