Our Story

From small beginnings…

In the summer of 2020, 7 adults and 2 children moved to start The River Church Newcastle from Nottingham. God had clearly spoken and asked us to move, he had broken our hearts for Newcastle and the North East so we were sent by Grace Church Nottingham to start a new church for Newcastle as part of the Grace Connection family of churches.

We had our first meeting in Rick & Cheryl’s home in Wallsend in September 2020, within 2 weeks the pandemic meant the rule of 6 applied so we split into 2 different houses. A deep desire for community and connection in our new city lead us to our first venue where we could all be together and we met in a small cafe “The Tots Tea Room” on Wallsend High Street so we could be together, and hear Bible teaching and speak out worship songs as singing was banned!

By the grace and faithfulness of God the church grew and it was re-launched in their home in September 2021 with new church members, a newborn and piles of food and bible teaching. Since then God has continued to grow our church, with the young and old, locals and people new to city. The church outgrew their house and in September 2022 we began meeting in Wallsend Town Hall. It was a huge step for the church, but as always God had gone before us and provided all we needed. God continued bringing new people through our doors who have now become core members of our church.

After 18 months at the Town Hall we lost the use of our River Kids space so prayed about what to do next and through many clear prophetic words got led us to Ouseburn Farm! Children are a core part of our church and God was adding more families to our community who had a wonderful summer visiting the farm animals each week after church. As the space no longer began to suit our needs God opened up the doors to Seven Stories - The National Centre for Children’s books where we meet now. We have such a fun time meeting in their attic on Floor 7, hearing faithful bible teaching, worshiping, meeting with The Spirit building community whilst the children have teaching in a room with an 8 foot Mog the cat! It is a place of joy, safety and connection, both for our church and for Newcastle.

We will always go where God leads us, like Moses following the pillar of fire and cloud in the Bible we know God’s plans are better than are own. So whilst we look forward to a day where we are no longer nomadic and are in our own promised land with a more permanent home for our church, for now we are where he has placed us. Come and find a place to call home with us, and join us in the adventure of following Jesus wherever he leads. thfully grown the church and it is now a small thriving gospel community meeting in Newcastle. He has put a burden on our hearts to see the North East fall in love with Jesus by teaching the bible and meeting with the Spirit.

Find images of our journey so far below