We believe we were created to follow Jesus in the context of community and we believe church is the vehicle which was designed to help us do that. The church isn’t a particular building, or an event that happens on a certain day of the week. The church is the people who follow Jesus together. We gather on Sundays in Shoreditch and throughout the week in Community Groups.
Our Vision
We want to inspire you with our vision, but first, let’s talk coffee.
The UK is famous for drinking tea. However, the reality is we now drink far more lates, espressos and flat whites than tea. What changed hundreds of years of tea drinking culture? In 1998 starbucks opened its first UK coffee shop in London. Their aim wasn't to build one really large coffee shop that people would travel to from across London. They started one local coffee shop in a local area, then another and another, and another. Local coffee shops in local communities resulted in cultural transformation!
We want to take a similar approach by launching multiple local church communities in and for their local communities across London.
Our Goals
-
In ten years we want to have launched local church communities in North, South and West London (as well as our current East London community).
-
In three years we want to be gathering in two locations (East London and either the North, South or West too).
-
Before we can launch new communities in different parts of London we need two things to happen in East London (by the end of 2024)
We need to average 65+ people each Sunday.
We need to have developed a leadership pipeline.
Lot's of church planting data shows that averaging 65+ people each week is a tough milestone to crack.
The easiest way for us to reach that target is for everyone who calls Liberty home, to come more often. If you come once a month on average, come twice. If you come twice a month, come three times. The quicker we can reach this target the better!
If we have two locations we will need twice as many worship teams, bible teachers, kids team etc. In order to have two or more local church communities in and for their local communities, we need to develop people.
We aren't 100% sure what form the leadership pipeline will take. We will keep you posted...
Our Story
Jonny & Tasha Pettman felt called to plant a church together, even before they got married in 2012. What this looked like wasn’t clear - but the passion to gather people together to follow Jesus as an authentic church community was key. A community that reflected more closely what we see in Acts 2 than most modern churches. A church community that loved one another and loved their neighbours so deeply, that it would be clear to everyone what this was a Jesus centred church.
In 2016 Jonny & Tasha were youth and kids Pastors at a great church in Liverpool. It was in October of that year, six weeks before the birth of their second child, that God connected them to Liberty Church in New York City.
In August 2017 they had left their jobs, put their suburban house on the market and moved to New York to learn to plant a city church.
The church in New York was exactly what they had dreamt of in terms of an authentic community of people from different cultures, backgrounds, ages and ethnicities coming together to follow Jesus. This was the church they had always wanted to be part of - but God wasn’t calling them to stay in NYC long term, but start a UK version of the church - in London.
In August 2018 they moved into their first rented London flat on a busy main road. They had swapped small town suburban comfort for the inner city of one of the fastest paced, urban populations on the planet - and LOVED it! They began gathering a Launch Team every week and began Sundays services in September 2019 in a secondary school near Euston Station.
An unexpected global Pandemic meant that the church moved online, had meets up in the park and then in different venues until April 2021 when weekly services were able to resume. Since January 2022 the church has gathered in a community centre sports hall in Shoreditch and in Community Groups in homes around London.
Liberty Church London is a non-denominational Christian church. Though our style is contemporary, our theology is traditional. We believe that the Gospel is both timely and timeless.
Liberty Church London is a member of the Evangelical Alliance (“EA”) and aligns with their beliefs. You can see a full list of our beliefs by visiting the EA website. The EA is made up of hundreds of organisations, thousands of churches, and tens of thousands of individuals, joined together for the sake of the gospel. Representing evangelical Christians and churches since 1846, the EA is the oldest and largest evangelical unity movement in the UK.