The church's website [visit link] gives a brief history of the
building and how it came to be Kensington Temple. It reads:
"In September 1849 Horbury Chapel, Notting Hill was
officially opened. It was built as an outreach into this fast developing area of
London by Hornton Street Congregational Church situated in the nearby village of
Kensington.
The event made the front cover of the Illustrated London
News. Members of Hornton Street Church had been deeply moved at a recent prayer
meeting and many had wept as they commissioned 37 people who were to pioneer the
new work in Notting Hill. They also donated significant sums of money for the
project.
This dedication was soon rewarded as the new church grew
to around 600 people with a Sunday school of 200 and a day school of 300. The
church was socially-minded and ministered effectively to the poor in the
area.
It had a godly pastor, Rev. William Roberts, BA who was
described as an "earnest, thoughtful and evangelical" minister. The church also
had a strong missionary emphasis supporting many overseas missions. Gladys
Aylwood, the great missionary to China, found Christ following one of the
services at Horbury Chapel and Rev. Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist minister
preached there. It is interesting to notice the similarities between the days of
that Congregational Chapel and what have now become the distinctive features of
Kensington Temple: fervent prayer, vision for the lost, church planting,
effective ministry to people and sacrificial service.
George Jeffreys and the early days of Elim
The
First World War and the general spiritual state of the nation during the first
few decades of the 20th century meant significant decline in many British
churches, including Horbury Chapel. For this reason, it was rented out and in
1931 finally sold to a new and growing movement known as Elim Foursquare Gospel
Alliance. The Alliance had been formed by its leader, George Jeffreys whom the
Lord had been using along with his brother Stephen in a powerful revival of
healing and evangelism. Kensington Temple was a part of the revival of those
days. In 1921, the Daily Sketch newspaper carried a front-page picture of
Stephen Jeffreys together with a lady and a child miraculously healed at
Kensington Temple. The building was renovated, given new seating to a new
maximum of 1,100 and renamed 'Kensington Temple'. The congregation grew to a
regular 800 people and was frequently filled to capacity.
However in 1939, George Jeffreys resigned from the Elim
movement over the issue of the sovereignty of the local church. Shortly after
this, in 1943, the majority of the congregation left the Temple in the hands of
George Jeffreys' Trustees and started a new church called 'The West London
Christian Fellowship'. The new fellowship, kept its link with Elim and met in a
series of different venues under the leadership of a succession of different
pastors until 1958, when Eldin Corsie assumed the pastorate at Holland Park
Mission.
The return to Kensington Temple
Following the
death of George Jeffries in 1962, the Trustees of Kensington Temple offered to
sell the building to Elim, and three years later in 1965, Eldin Corsie led a
congregation of around 60 people back into KT. The Kensington News and West
London Times on Friday, 7th May 1965, took up the story of the opening that was
to take place the following day.
"A few weeks ago three people stood in the empty, dusty
building (Kensington Temple) and prayed that God would restore its former glory.
One of the three was the Secretary of the Elim Church at Holland Park, who in
his youth had witnessed great scenes of revival there; where Sunday after Sunday
the Temple was full to capacity and people were reluctantly turned away. These
were years of plenty indeed!"
They certainly had been years of plenty and this was
soon highlighted during a basement clear out. The cleaning party found crutches
and wheelchairs that had been discarded during the great healing meetings. They
also found the 'Church Full' sign that had been placed outside the church when
there was no more room inside. "Do it again, Lord!" became the constant cry of
the new congregation. Eldin Corsie's ministry in the Temple continued for a
further 15 years after which he became Principal of Elim Bible College. They
were years of preparation as he laid new foundations into the spiritual life of
the church. He also saw the congregation grow to 600. Eldin laboured effectively
in every area that was later to bear fruit in the 1980's.
He placed a strong emphasis on prayer, developed
fellowship groups (the forerunners of today's satellite churches), welcomed
members from the international community and exercised a strong evangelistic and
teaching ministry.
Wynne Lewis and the 1980's
In September 1980, Wynne Lewis hit the church like a human tornado!
His dynamic leadership style, together with his ability to hear from God and
implement His plans, took the church forward by leaps and bounds. During his
ministry at KT, which lasted just over a decade, he led the church from 600 to
5,000 people. Much of the growth came from the international community that was
attracted by the fellowship groups that Wynne Lewis started but the real
breakthrough came in 1983 after Wynne was laid up for many months following a
car crash.
In hospital, God clearly spoke to Wynne about his
intentions for KT and when Wynne finally went back to work he was a changed
person. He ministered under a new anointing and the church began to grow
rapidly.
In 1985, Colin Dye joined the leadership team and founded the Bible
Institute. He also planted the first Satellite Church in Barnet where a
fellowship group had been meeting in Eldin Corsie's time. During the second half
of the eighties, the church's missions ministry also took on a greater
significance when the entire leadership accepted their responsibility for world
evangelism. The church was now filled several times each Sunday, and there were
up to 40 different satellite congregations. In 1991 Wynne left KT for the post
of General Superintendent of Elim, and Colin Dye was appointed Senior
Pastor.
Colin Dye and the 1990's
Under the leadership of Colin Dye, KT continued to grow regularly
reaching up to a maximum of 15,000 people. Church planting also continued to be
a major focus and with that Colin developed Kensington Temple and its satellite
churches into a city-wide structure called the 'London City Church'. This
network linked everyone together and initiated a comprehensive strategy to win
London for Christ. Colin instituted the 'City Celebrations', which aim to bring
together the central congregations and the network churches into a large venue
on a regular basis. In 1992, 4,600 gathered in the Royal Albert Hall and in
1993, 10,000 came together in Wembley Arena. These developed into full scale
'Holy Convocations' held at the Wembley Arena (October, 1998-1999). In 1999 the
'Revival Healing Services' at the Royal Albert Hall were reminiscent of the
great Elim Meetings with George Jeffreys earlier in the century.
From March 1996, Colin was able to preach and share the
vision from Kensington Temple into many different venues at once. A number of
the London City churches were linked together through a special satellite
broadcast. This networking programme helped the churches to share a common
vision to build a City Church as well as becoming an effective church planting
strategy.
Colin's apostolic anointing, drive and teaching ministry
encouraged hundreds of Christians to be involved in building the city church.
The main goal of the 1990s was to develop 2,000 churches, fellowships and groups
by the end of the year 2000. The goal wasn't totally fulfilled, but the 1990s
saw Kensington Temple plant more churches than any other group in Europe. It
would have been very easy to be hampered by a building that was too small to
contain the attendees back in the 1980s, let alone to allow for further growth
into the 1990s, but Colin made sure that through live link congregations,
networking and church planting growth continued apace. The church offices moved
into a former BBC building in North Acton in the autumn of 1996. The scenery
construction warehouse space adjoining was converted into a 3,000-4,000 seater
auditorium. It was renamed `The Tabernacle' and opened in March 1997. The
training aspects of the church played an increasingly key role in the growth of
the church. The Bible Institute under Colin Dye grew to be the largest
Pentecostal Bible School in Europe attracting students from many
nations.
In 2000, Kensington Temple and the London City Church
network began to transition into a cell church, following the G12 cell church
model pioneered by Cesar Castellanos in Bogota, Colombia."
The church is Grade II listed with the entry at the English
Heritage website [visit
link] telling us:
"Church. Circa 1848-9 by J Tarvin formerly the Horbury
Congregational Chapel until 1935; later the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and
now the Elim Pentecostal Church. Geometrical Gothic style with square towers
capped by low spires. Cruciform plan with 4 bay nave, transepts and shallow
santuary containing the pulpit. Random rubble Kentish ragstone with ashlar
dressings. Slated roof with parapets and coped gable to east front flanked by
towers. East window of 4-light with geometrical tracery. Central arched doorway
with receding orders and hoodmould; flanking doorways in corner towers. Plain
interior with galleries on 3 sides carried on cast iron columns and approached
from tower staircases."
The church's website [visit link] advises of service
times:
"Sunday
9am & 11am Morning Celebrations (Holy Communion 1st Sunday of
every month)
2.30pm Celebration Service
5pm Teaching Service
7pm Holy
Spirit Revival Service
Full Childrens' programme available at all KT
meetings.
Tuesday
7pm Revival
Training Meeting
Wednesday
7pm Revival
Healing Meeting
Friday
7pm every
Friday Worship Night
Saturday
7pm Saturday
Service - All Nations Praise"