Our History

In 1999, with the blessing of the Bishop of Sheffield, St Thomas’ Crookes planted about 70% of its people into the centre of Sheffield, having felt for some years a call to be a church for the whole of Sheffield, as well as its immediate parish. After a few temporary homes, we purchased the Philadelphia campus of buildings in 2003 and formally established a new church of St Thomas’ Philadelphia, with a distinct vision, staff team and membership. 

 

Meanwhile, the Parish Church in Crookes is led by Revd Mick Woodhead, with a renewed vision to reach the local community and others around Sheffield. Mick developed a new team, vision and congregations working from broadly the same principles, and putting them into practice in the right ways for them.

 

We consider ourselves to be ‘family’ with each other. We continue to draw from the same theological sources and share a deep missional mindset, as well as some operating principles like Lifeshapes and Communities. We collaborate when possible, and share some resources together. 

 

In the early 1980’s St. Thomas’ Parish Church, Crookes needed to move its congregation out during a building refurbishment. They began sharing the building of Crookes Baptist Church. The 2 churches were operating virtually next door to each other, and realised that what they shared in common far out-weighted potential differences. They felt the hand of God inviting them together, and joined to form an LEP. The newly formed Anglican-Baptist church grew significantly through the 1980’s and became known for innovative strategies for growth and lively worship.

 

Two decades later, the Philadelphia church was approached by a sizable independent House Church in Sheffield, The King's Centre about joining together. The leaders felt the connection of many shared values and the same vision to the whole city of Sheffield. By 2004 the two churches had become one, while keeping their separate names and sense of local identity. In keeping with the multi-denominational theme, this means that we are now Anglican-Baptist-Housechurch!

 

During the 1980’s the church was impacted by the charismatic renewal movement, through the ministry of John Wimber among others. In the 1990s this expanded to encompass the values of deeply experiencing God’s love, presence and power, and seeking to share it with others. The church was known too for the pioneering experiment of the Nine O’Clock Service, reaching out to un-churched students and young people with contemporary worship and a post-modern cultural approach, before it sadly fell into disrepute some years after it became independent from St Thomas’ and was shut down in 1995.

 

Over the years we have prioritised seeking God’s Kingdom values in what we do, and how we do it. This means we want our lives to reflect the way Jesus lived, and desire God’s Spirit to move in power in us and through us, for example in praying for and regularly seeing healing happen in people – both physical and emotional. Alongside God’s Kingdom our other primary driver is a sense of God’s Covenant – being in the family of God, sharing His character and ways, and living out of the security that comes from knowing we are children of the living God. Covenant and Kingdom are at the heart of our DNA, and affect the way we encounter God and share Him with others.

 

We worship God wherever we spend our time – not just on Sundays, but weekdays at home, work, study or leisure through our words and actions. Our different midweek groups enjoy a stunning variety of styles and flavours – something for most people’s tastes.

 

Today you’ll find a church family that enjoys relaxed contemporary worship (usually with a full band on Sundays), integrates the historic liturgies with a modern twist, and values inspirational teaching and stories of people’s lives, as we learn how to respond to God.

 

Actually, our first location in the heart of the city centre was Ponds Forge Leisure Centre in 1999. A year later we leased an old nightclub right in the centre of the city called The Roxy. Once dubbed the ‘palace of sin’ by the local press for its reputation, after a remarkable clean-up involving 1,000s of litres of magnolia paint and a new carpet, the Roxy became St Thomas’ new city-home for the next two years. This was a very exciting time for us during which lots of people caught the vision and the church’s membership grew incredibly quickly until it numbered over 2,000 people, with 80% of these under the age of 40. 

 

After The Roxy lease ended we had no building at all. On one remarkable Sunday St Thomas’ planted 17 new congregations (called ‘clusters’) in venues all across Sheffield. Some clusters met in homes, others in cinemas, bars, community centres, unused church buildings and even a pub. Occasionally we gathered everyone together in a hired venue, but mostly the church met as clusters across Sheffield, working out what it means to be ‘church without walls’.

 

Later, God intervened again and an opportunity arose to purchase an industrial site in Sheffield to serve as the city church’s new home. This site, in the area of Sheffield historically known as Philadelphia, fulfilled a prophetic word spoken over the church some 8 years. In early 2003, just a year after leaving the Roxy, the church moved into its new home, the Philadelphia Campus. With multiple buildings, and even its own roads, the site was big enough to allow the church to keep growing for years to come. Today, the campus has various multi-purpose venues, a permanent prayer-room, and a host of facilities for the local community to use.

 

In 1994 Rev. Mike Breen became the Rector of St Thomas’ Crookes. He encouraged the large congregation to locate themselves in small groups of people with a shared vision and purpose. They are people seeking represent God to those outside the church, rather than just doing ‘churchy’ activities, and feel like our immediate family - people we see week-in, week-out and share our lives with at a deeper level. 

 

They also began to meet together in lay-led ‘Clusters’ of small groups, today called Missional Communities. These are like extended family, made up of between 6-30 people (plus any number of accompanying children) and are communities of people who find they have a similar heart, focus or calling in life. It could be for a particular people group or geographical area of the city and it forms the basis of their life together and of their outreach. All our Missional Communities, plus others who attend our Sunday gatherings and various programmes make up our church of St Thomas’ Philadelphia.

 

Rev. Mike Breen introduced in the 1990s some significant discipleship tools called ‘Lifeshapes’. These are simple shapes (like a triangle and circle) which are easy-to-remember tools based on how Jesus lived, and how He calls us to do the same. Today the values of Lifeshapes inform the way the church operates, and the way our people live their lives. They are incredibly helpful principles to follow. Our leaders regularly refer to them and are trained to apply them.

 

Lifeshapes may not be immediately obvious around church. They are more like a computer ‘operating system’ – they happen under-the-surface, informing how everything else happens.

 

The commitment of St. Thomas’ Philadelphia is not to be an insular mega-church, but to live out our lives in and for the city of Sheffield, representing the love and call of Jesus. For this reason, though we now have our own campus of buildings, we continue to meet and serve in Communities across the city.

 

Our structure is aimed towards community transformation, seeking to build well-functioning communities where people feel safe and there is a sense of hope for the future. We operate in some of the more deprived areas and estates of the city, with children’s clubs, youth events and groups and adult community life. Our work with addicts and other marginalised people is respected around the city, plus we have great leisure groups like a number of football teams and netball around the city.

 

One of our church’s greatest strengths is that we deliberately find the balance of both/and. We both ‘gather’ together as family for worship and encouragement and we ‘go’ to love and serve our city in Missional Communities (MCs) and the places we live or work.

 

Network Church Sheffield is one church in 3 different local bases. St Thomas’ Philadelphia is one of those. The others (part of the same church in different locations) are King’s Centre (Nether Edge) and City:Base (meet in the centre of Sheffield). 

 

The ‘Lifeshapes’ tools have also been increasingly used by other churches both in the U.K. and across the world, with thousands of people using them as a way of effectively engaging with the Christian life. Likewise, there is much interest in Missional Communities, and our principles of building a culture of discipleship in the local church. Our national training and consultancy work happens through Network Church Sheffield and 3DM UK. 

 

St. Thomas’ is the mother church of a missionary organisation called The Order of Mission (T.O.M.). The members of TOM are leaders of churches and other Christian communities of various denominations from all over the world. TOM is held accountable to the wider church by John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, David Coffey, President of the World Baptist Alliance, Eddie Gibbs, Professor of Church Growth, Fuller Seminary and Kent Hunter, President of Church Doctor Ministries.