Big Changes Ahead as Lymm Methodist Church Begins Renovation

Exciting changes are afoot at Lymm Methodist Church, as work begins on a £700,000 redevelopment project.

The changes arise from the church’s Mission Plan, which was created in 2017 and serves as a working document for the development of the church as a base for evangelism. Its vision is that Lymm Methodist Church should be a welcoming church, and there are four strands to the challenge it sets out for its members and leadership team:

• Worship - be a vibrant worshipping community, offering a range of worship styles.
• Learning and caring: help people to grow in faith through mutual support and care.
• Service: care for people and all God’s creation in practical ways, and challenge injustice.
• Evangelism: express God’s love in their daily lives and enable others to become followers of Christ.

Recognising a decline in the engagement of young families with church life and a growing sense that church was becoming an alien place with no relevance for their lives, the church’s first response was to appoint a Children and Family Worker to take the Christian message out to local schools. Weekly ‘Chat ‘n’ Chill’ sessions now take place at the local high school, while a team of volunteers act out ‘Open the Book’ bible stories regularly in five local primary schools. Two hundred children from these primary schools now visit the church twice a year to learn about the Christmas and Easter stories. The children clearly enjoy and are engaged by these interactions.

Other on-site outreach activities include monthly lunches for the local community (‘Lunch at the Brow’), raising £5,000 a year for a local homelessness charity, and a knitting group (‘Loving Hearts and Hands’). In addition, the church’s halls and rooms are used by many community groups, with more than 400 people on site in a typical week. However, the buildings and facilities are dated and unwelcoming, and the church realised that it needed to offer better hospitality for visitors. Most importantly, access is an issue because the halls and rooms are spread across two floors and multiple levels.

The £700,000 project will make it easier and safer for everyone to access and use the buildings, including large groups, as well as wheelchair users and pushchairs. A lift and low-rise staircase will be installed, and other improvements include a new ground floor entrance and lobby, along with new toilets and kitchen facilities. In addition, theatre lighting will be installed to enable the worship area to be used as flexible performance space for music, theatre and dance.

The changes will make the church a more welcoming place for its outreach activities, as well as for community groups. With these improved facilities, the church is working in partnership to bring Citizens Advice back to Lymm, serving as a base for this valuable community service. It will also be developing a programme of regular concerts and other arts events.

The church, which is already a Fairtrade church and has an Eco-Church bronze award, is responding to the climate crisis by ending its use of gas, installing an electric air-to-air heating system using highly efficient, highly controllable air source heat pumps. The move away from gas, combined with the fact that the church is on a renewable energy electricity tariff, means that it will burn no fossil fuels. This will not only meet the Methodist Church’s Net Zero target and be better for the planet, but also improve local air quality.

Work started in January 2026 and is expected to take six months. The church’s buildings on Eagle Brow will be closed during this time, but the church community remains as active as ever. Sunday morning services are being held nearby in St Peter’s Church Hall in Oughtrington, and recordings of services are being put on YouTube. ‘Lunch at the Brow’ has moved temporarily to Lymm Village Hall. Church members are also continuing to help run Messy Church and visit local primary schools regularly with Open the Book, re-enacting bible stories.

‘We are delighted to be starting construction,’ says church member John Woodthorpe, who has led the project team. ‘The improved, more welcoming facilities will provide a much better base for Christian outreach and evangelism, and will enable us to serve our community better. Ending our use of fossil fuels is the single biggest step we could take to show that we are serious about tackling the climate crisis and climate injustice. The generous support we have had from our community, Sankey Valley Methodist Circuit, the North-West District and other bodies to achieve all this has been fantastic. We cannot wait to invite everyone in when we reopen.’

To see the latest video updates on the project, visit www.lymmmethodistchurch.co.uk.