Forefront Community Church

Forefront Community Church is an independent evangelical fellowship worshipping and serving God in Chard. With historical roots in the Brethren movement we have grown into a diverse family of believers from a wide range of backgrounds. The Leadership team includes men and women. Each have responsibilities in different ministry areas but with equal responsibility for the general well-being of the church.

Our vision is to be “a caring community with every member equipped to demonstrate Christ, working with others to advance God’s Kingdom in Chard and the world”. We emphasise the values of seeking God, loving generously and expecting transformation, reflecting our strong commitment to biblical teaching, outreach and social action.

We believe that the Body of Christ is called to actively serve our community and have been running the Forefront Community Centre for over 10 years. Prominently positioned in the heart of Chard the centre is open every morning as a drop-in centre. It also hosts a range of specific activities including Work Life (a job club), Coffee Mornings and Bible studies. It is the home of the Lords Larder (a food bank run jointly by all the Chard Churches) and is used by other support agencies and groups including NHS Counselling Services, Citizen's Advice and Well Wessex (an organisation fundraising for local mental health projects).

Our Sunday morning services are held in Chard’s principle public building, the Guildhall, and would typically involve about 100 people, ranging in age from new-born to over 90 years. The service format is relatively informal, with no set liturgy. Different people lead the services on rotation and the preaching of the Word is shared between a number of members of the Forefront church family also with some external speakers. Our team of musicians lead us in a mixture of modern songs and more traditional hymns. During the Sunday morning service there is a crèche, Sunday School classes for children aged 5 to 11 years and sessions for our ‘180 Youth Group’ for 11- 16 years.

Forefront Community Church is an active member of Chard Churches Together and members of the Forefront family are involved in a number of jointly run projects within the town including Holiday Clubs, Street Pastors and Messy Church.

The aim of Forefront's youth work is for every young person to grow in their potential, their purpose for living and their relationship with God and others.

We see this as happening at a number of levels:
i) Reaching out to unchurched young people through: the schools, social events and inter church events; building relationships; encouraging and equipping young people to reach their friends with the gospel; schools work; summer camps.
ii) Communicating the truths of Scripture in a relevant and accessible way.
iii) Building mentoring relationships as part of the discipleship process.
iv) Helping young people identify and use their God given gifts.
v) Encouraging young people to become part of the wider church family.

At present there are volunteers involved in the different aspects of this work and we are seeking a full-time youth worker to coordinate the work.

Nearly all of the ministry will take place in Chard - therefore a car is not essential. There are bus links to Yeovil and Taunton.

Chard is a small market town of approximately 13,000. There is a large secondary school in the town and 4 primary schools.

Activities, for youth of secondary school age, currently include “180°” teaching and discussion sessions on Sunday mornings where the group meet to talk about God, learn from the Bible together and work through what it means to have a personal relationship with God that is relevant and genuine. The group is also involved in joint youth events in our area, mostly on Sundays. We are also providing mentoring for some of the young people. There are also many joint church projects that involve going into the local schools for assemblies and a Christian Union, and there is a Messy Church.