The story of the building
Built in 1905 to accommodate the growing St. David’s Free Church, established in 1843, St. David’s began as a mission-oriented church, funding church planting and outreach in the early 1900s.
Like many Church of Scotland congregations, the St. David’s congregation gradually declined in size as it grew old and small, causing the building to close in 2007. A businessman purchased St. David’s in 2009 and converted it into a cinema and nightclub. The Bathgate Cinema provided a local boutique cinema experience with two screens each seating 85 people; the Chalmers Night Club had a 1000-person capacity and became one of the most popular entertainment venues in West Lothian.
The Covid-19 lockdown in Scotland made the boutique cinema business untenable, so the owner began moving towards retirement and put the business up for sale in 2020. After years of negotiating and fundraising, we secured a deal and purchased St David’s in April 2024.
We could not have purchased this iconic building without the support of our generous partners: Christian Believers United, Every Nation Ministries, The Centre for European Church Planting, and Centrepoint Church.
For Sunday worship, the sanctuary plus kid’s church will give us a total capacity of 375 people in a single service.
In addition to being a home to Centrepoint, St David’s will be a base for outreach and church planting in Scotland and across Europe. Not only will we provide specialized training and equipping seminars for pastors and leaders from across Scotland and the UK, but St. David’s will host the Every Nation School of Ministry, which equips leaders, campus missionaries, evangelists, and pastors from across Europe for gospel ministry in Europe.
It is unusual for historic church buildings such as St. David’s to be restored to their original purpose. Many such buildings are often repurposed into commercial spaces, as St. David’s was, or residential units or left abandoned, leading to the loss of their spiritual and cultural heritage. Centrepoint intends to breathe new life into St. David’s to preserve its sacred purpose and reclaim its architectural splendor.
Our Apostolic Legacy
In Every Nation in Our Generation: Recovering the Apostolic Mandate, Dr. Rice Broocks confirms that “most of Europe is in desperate need of re-evangelism and the founding of new apostolic churches” (p. 184). This is what ENSM is all about, and why we have purchased a building.
Dr. Tom’s roots go back to King’s Park International Church where he was trained by Ron Lewis, Founding Pastor and Bishop of King’s Park Churches. Bishop Ron has helped plant over 100 churches in 16 nations. Marked by a spirit of faith for gospel advance in the nations through church planting, King’s Park has touched nations in diverse contexts including China, Taiwan, Korea, Ukraine, and Scotland.
When the Iron Curtain fell, Dr. Tom and his wife Jean were sent out of King’s Park in 1990 as church-planting missionaries to Eastern Europe. In the spirit of the “dream big and go” legacy, Tom and the team that emerged planted six churches throughout western Ukraine.
After handing these churches off to local, indigenous leaders, and after a period of ministry back at King’s Park, the Lord led Tom and Jean to Western Europe. Planting congregations in Edinburgh (2005) and Bathgate (2008), the dream was always reaching Europe from the heart of Scotland.
The Lord joined Tom with Pastor Wolfi Eckleben, an apostolic leader based in London. Working with Pastor Wolfi Eckleben and the Every Nation Europe Regional Leadership Team, Tom began hosting equipping events in 2011 and established the school of ministry in 2017. Since its inception, the school has now equipped over 100 church planters, evangelists, and missionaries from more than 30 churches in 15 nations.
As we establish a home for ENSM and Centrepoint Church, we walk forward in faith, drawing on this apostolic legacy of gospel advance. Reclaiming the Spirit of Go, we are focused on equipping and launching leaders for God’s harvest in Europe’s mission field.