Finding a temporary home during the building redevelopment
From Sunday 3rd August our Sunday services will be moving from Lovat Hall to Ousedale School in Newport Pagnell while extensive work takes place on our building. The redevelopment will ensure that Lovat Hall can continue to be a multi-purpose, welcoming space for our growing church family, and for our local community for many years to come.
Key dates:
Sunday 26th July - our last service in Lovat Hall before the redevelopment and a celebration of all the has happened in the building.
Sunday 3rd August - our first Sunday at Ousedale School with one relaxed family service at 10.30am led by our pastor Steve Wood.
Not surprisingly, as we plan to leave the building whilst Lovat Hall is being redeveloped, we know you have lots of questions. Hopefully, this comprehensive list FAQs will answer them all for you. Enjoy!
-
As our church and local community grows, a new, larger building will be a vital tool in enabling us to better live out God’s call to welcome more people to our church family and introduce them to the love of Jesus.
And Lovat Hall is not only home to NPBC, it’s also an important community centre with an average 1,200 people a week coming through the doors for a wide variety of groups and clubs.
Yet it’s an ageing building that is badly in need of modernisation. The building redevelopment will ensure that Lovat Hall can continue to be a multi-purpose, welcoming space for our growing church family, and for our local community for many years to come.
-
The work centres around the rear of the building (which dates back to the 1940s). This area will be replaced, extended and a more modern, flexible space will be created for the benefit of both the church and community. You can see detailed plans for the building project here.
-
From Sunday 3rd August, we’ll be meeting at: Ousedale School, The Grove, Newport Pagnell MK16 0BJ.
-
At this stage, we anticipate the build taking 12 months and therefore we are expecting to be at Ousedale for the duration.
-
We think we have this one covered, but if we don’t we will let you know in one of our weekly emails or at one of our Sunday services.
-
There are plenty of parking spaces at Ousedale, in fact more than we have at Lovat Hall. You’ll find them in front of the main school building, including disabled spaces.
-
Yes! From September we will continue to meet at 9.30am for our more reflective service and 11am for our gathering for all the family. Our One Big Family service will continue to be held on the first Sunday of every month at 10.30am .
In August we will have our usual more relaxed summer schedule with just one service at 10.30am. There are no children’s groups during August, but the service will be very family-friendly.
-
Yes. We’ll have access to a kitchen, as well as a separate serving area, so there will be no interruption to our usual refreshment offerings.
-
If you’re serving on a team you can arrive from 8.00am, but please check with your group leader as different groups may have their own specific timings for Sunday mornings.
-
We’ll have some support from the facilities team at Ousedale so we are reasonably confident we won’t need any extra volunteers for this.
-
Yes. We are really pleased that we’re able to use the Brooklands Centre (Ousebank Street, Newport Pagnell) so that we can continue to provide a more intimate space to worship and connect with God. You can join us on the first Sunday of the month from 7.00-8.00pm (from September).
-
Our children’s groups will take a break in August and then, in September, we’ll make sure we have plenty of visible volunteers who can point you in the right direction.
In the meantime, we are able to share that we’ve been given use of specific classroom spaces, as well as the whole of the sixth form block, so there’ll be plenty of room.
-
You should have received information from the leader of your group to let you know what’s been arranged. If you’re not sure, please contact your group leader or speak to someone on the information desk on Sunday mornings in July and August. They’ll be happy to help!
-
Our youth group for years 7-10 will meet at Newport Pagnell Youth Club, Wolverton Road, MK16 8HX at 6.45pm-8.15pm from 6th September.
-
Our Boys’ and Girls’ Brigade groups will be meeting at Green Park school, Green Park Drive, MK16 0NH, from the week beginning 7th September.
As a reminder, or if you’re new to our church family:
Boys Brigade:
Years 1-6 meet on Mondays at 6.15pm
Year 7-13 meet on Thursdays at 7.45pm
Girls Brigade:
Years 1-6 meet on Thursdays at 6.30pm.
Years 7-13 meet on Thursdays at 8.00pm.
-
We are really grateful for the work that’s been put in by the office team to make sure that the majority of these events can still go ahead. They will all take place in different locations around Newport Pagnell and we’ll communicate more details nearer the time.
-
We are co-ordinating with other local churches to make sure we can still provide a safe warm place for our Winter Night Shelter guests to eat, sleep and connect with others between November and March.
-
We have plans in place to make sure we are communicating as widely as possible with our whole church family and the local community but we’d also encourage you to check in with anyone you know who is an occasional visitor to NPBC to make sure they are in the loop about the move.
-
From September staff will be working from their usual offices in Lovat Hall. We’ll provide more details in due course as to the times you can expect someone to be in the building, should you need to speak with someone.
We will also provide availability and contact details for throughout August, again should you need to speak with someone.
(can members of the public / church members still pop in, assuming some people do this currently?)
-
We expect the build to take about 12 months, lasting until July 2027.
We may be able to move some groups back into the building earlier than this, depending on which rooms they will be using. We will keep everyone updated on this throughout the redevelopment.
-
Yes! Whether you can give £1, £10 or even £100 a month to the project, it's a great way for all of us to respond to God's generosity to us.
You can give to:
Account name: Newport Pagnell Baptist Church CIO
Sort code: 40-52-40
Account No: 00032501Thank you.
-
You can visit our dedicated building page on our website, HERE.
-
You can visit the Information desk on a Sunday morning from 19th July.
Speak to your homegroup leader or midweek group leader.
Call the office on 01908 618898 or email info@npbc.org.uk