Sunday morning: 11am - 12.30pm
Our Sunday morning services consist of a time of worship followed by Communion when we remember the Lord's death and resurrection and then the ministry of the Word.
Sunday evening: 6pm - 7.15pm
Sunday evening services are held every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month. They generally consist of a testimony time, some praise and worship and a short message from the Bible, followed by refreshments and a time of fellowship. Occasionally a visiting missionary will speak about their work for the Lord on a Sunday evening.
A mid week service takes place every Wednesday evening from 7.30pm - 9.00pm. This consists of a time of praise and worship followed by a short encouragement from God's Word and a time of prayer for needs local and further afield.
Our four Sunday School teachers do an amazing job each week, preparing lessons and fun activities for our boys and girls. Sunday School takes place during the morning Service.
A Creche room is available for mums to visit with their children, as the need arises. The church service is video-linked to this room.
The Youth Club meets as advertised in the church hall.
The Young people regularly arrange Youth Rallies, weekend events etc and also participate in the Sunday evening services. Check the Events page for up to date details.
The present building was opened in 1990 and then (following a fire) totally refurbished in 1995. This building has just undergone another major extension and refurbishment in 2021 to provide a passenger lift, a new Sunday School suite of rooms and an enlarged church hall, kitchen and showers. This is our main building and it also contains our Sanctuary, where we meet for worship. These upgraded facilities provide well for the future work of the church assembly.
Due to the increased success of the family camps each year, the need arose to provide some form of accommodation on site. The Chalet with 12 bedrooms and two shower rooms meets this need.
Erected in 1972, the old cedar wood church still stands today and is used for a number of purposes including children and youth events, barbeques etc.
We Believe that the Bible, consisting in its present form of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, and excluding the Apocrypha is the inspired Word of God, the infallible, all-sufficient rule for faith and practice. (2 Tim.3:15-16; 2 Pet.1:21)
We Believe in the unity of the one true and living God who has revealed Himself as One Being, co-existing in three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three are one God, sovereign in creation, providence and redemption, having the same nature and attributes. (Deut.6:4; Mark 12:29; Matt.28:19; 2 Cor.3:14)
We Believe in the virgin birth, sinless life, miraculous ministry, substitutionary atoning death, bodily resurrection, triumphant ascension and abiding intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ and in His second coming as the blessed hope set before all believers. (Isa.7:14; Matt.1:23; Heb.7:26; 1 Pet.2:22; Acts 2:22, 10:38, 2 Cor.5:21; Heb. 9:12; Luke 24:39; 1 Cor.15:4; Acts 1:9; Eph.4:8-10; Rom.8:34; Heb.7:25; 1 Cor. 15:22-24,51-57; 1 Thess.4:13-18; Rev.20:1-6)
We Believe man was originally created in the image and likeness of God. He fell through sin and as a consequence, incurred both spiritual and physical death. Spiritual death and the depravity of human nature have been transmitted to the entire human race with the exception of the Man Christ Jesus. Man can be saved only through the atoning blood and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Gen.1:26-31; 3:1-7; Rom.5:12-21)
We Believe in salvation through faith in Christ, who, according to the Scriptures, died for our sins, was buried and was raised from the dead on the third day, and that through His blood we have redemption. This experience, known as the new birth, is an instantaneous and complete operation of the Holy Spirit upon initial faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:11;3:5-7; Rom.10:8-15, 1 Cor. 15:3-4; John 3:5-6; James 1:18; 1 Pet.1:23; 1 John 5:1)
We Believe that all who have truly repented and believed in Christ as Lord and Saviour are commanded to be baptised by immersion in water. (Matt.28:19; Acts 10:47-48; Acts 2:38-39)
We Believe in the in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit within the Church today. (1Cor.12:4-11, 28; Eph. 4:7-16)
We Believe that all who have truly repented and believe in Christ as Lord and Saviour should regularly participate in Breaking of Bread. (Luke 22:14-20; 1 Cor. 11:20-34)
We Believe in holiness of life and conduct in obedience to the command of God. (1 Pet.1:14-16; Heb.12:14; 1 Thess.5:23; 1 John 2:6)
We Believe marriage is a provision of God wherein one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others enter into a lifelong relationship through a marriage ceremony that is recognised by the Church and legally sanctioned by the state. (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:6)
We Believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the everlasting conscious bliss of all who truly believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and the everlasting conscious punishment of all whose names are not written in the book of life. (Dan. 12:2-3;John 5:28-29; 1 Cor. 15:22-24; Matt. 25:46; 2 Thess. 1:9; Rev. 20:10-15)
Mountain Lodge Pentecostal Assembly (as it was originally known) was founded in the 1950’s by Thomas John Hunniford who bought Mountain Lodge House & Estate. Being of a Pentecostal background, he started some meetings in the large house and as numbers grew transferred them to the gate lodge on the estate. Within a short time, the gate lodge was too small and so he added an extension to accommodate the increasing numbers who attended each week.
One of the first missions run in the gate lodge was by two evangelists, Bob Mullen and David Greenow. Bob Flanagan, a local man from the village of Darkley, attended the mission one night. These preachers were preaching signs, wonders and miracles. After the meeting, he went up and challenged the preachers, “Do you believe what you are preaching?” “We certainly do”, they said. “Well then prove it to me” said Bob, “I have a girl at home dying of asthma. If you pray for her and she is healed, I will believe”. The two men followed him to his house, just as Jesus would have done. The men entered the room and saw the girl gasping for breath. They laid hands on her, rebuking the asthma and the next breath went straight to the bottom of her lungs and she was perfectly healed. Bob and his wife were amazed. The following Sunday they were both at the Mountain Lodge meeting, where they remained as members for many years.
A local man, Robert Bain, known to everyone as Bob, was invited to the mission, not knowing that these meetings were to change his life and that of his family forever. Many more testimonies were given at the mission and it shook Bob’s faith to its foundation because he was brought up to believe that these things died with the apostles. After the mission Bob, his wife and family joined Mountain Lodge. (In later years Bob would take over the role of Pastor).
The gate lodge by now was too small so during 1959 a larger hall was erected a short distance away on Mr Hunniford’s land. Bob Bain was a man that loved singing and there was plenty of that in Mountain Lodge. When he was only there about a year, Thomas John Hunniford put a book in his hand and said, “You go up and lead the singing”. Everyone will always remember him leading the meetings with a big tambourine. Eventually Mr Hunniford decided to move away and he appointed Bob to lead the flock. Pastor Bob had the gift of divine healing, as taught in the scriptures and so people came from near and far for prayer. The work continued to flourish under his ministry, with people travelling from far and near for prayer.
Although the Assembly was still small, visiting preachers regularly came to speak at the Sunday evening meetings. In 1969 a man with a prophetic ministry gave a message to the Assembly: “I am going to visit this place with my power and will bring a people that you do not know and a people from across the border, and will plant them in your midst and you will have fellowship together, saith the Lord”. A few months later it started to happen; people came without any invitation and large families came from across the border and Mountain Lodge experienced its first real revival.
However, when revival hits, the devil is not far away. In 1971 an arson attack meant this new hall was burned down. (The building was by now too small anyway). The following year a new cedar-wood building was erected on the site which served the growing congregation until 1990. A tank for baptism by immersion was installed in the open air behind the church. What a blessing came to those who were baptised in water and who received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Many a young couple walked the isle and took their vows before God in this building.
God’s hand of blessing was on the meetings in this hall and Sunday nights saw an influx of young people come into the church. What a shock it was therefore, when on 20th November 1983 terrorists entered our church during the Sunday evening service, killing three elders and wounding seven others. This was during the height of 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland.
It was all over in a few minutes and the gun men fled. Pastor Bob was praying for the wounded when he noticed a young man in the back seat badly injured. This young man had been shot through the door and a number of bullets were lodged in his stomach. It looked like he wouldn’t make it as he was bleeding very badly. Pastor Bob laid hands on him and commanded the bleeding to stop which, to the astonishment of the medics, it did immediately! During the dark days that followed, the saints were strengthened by the word of God and the prayers of God’s people and were convinced by God’s Word that this door would not be closed because God had opened it.
Eventually a new larger church building was built on the same site which was opened on 18th August 1990. This building cost £180,000, a vast step of faith for a small congregation, but with the support of friends, and sacrificial giving by the fellowship the church cleared the debt in just four years!
At this time, Pastor Bob's son-in-law was ordained as an assistant pastor and new elders were installed, and for the following four years this new building would remain the meeting place of the congregation.
The church had settled comfortably into this building when on 13th May 1994, Pastor Bain, who had faithfully served the church for over thirty years, was called Home. David Bell, the assistant pastor, then accepted the senior position and continued to lead the work forward under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. However, later that year on 4th September 1994, the church suffered another arson attack and the new building was gutted by fire, completely destroying the interior of the building. The interior was gutted out and two additional levels were incorporated into the design, providing a balcony and a church hall at an upper level. The enlarged and refurbished building was reopened to the glory of God on 18th August 1995.
For many years the church had a two day convention at Christmas and Easter. Those meetings were a tremendous blessing and people came for miles to attend. The meetings started at 3 pm and often didn’t finish until 10 pm! In 1998, we felt led of God to change the format to an Easter Camp instead, a place where we could accommodate the whole family and have a weekend of church ministry.
These camps have become a source of great blessing with new people and visiting speakers from around the world coming every year. A cross-community children’s outreach became an integral part of the weekends. Accommodation became a problem owing to the increasing numbers attending Camp each year and therefore a new purpose built chalet was erected in 2002 with twelve bedrooms, showers etc at the rear of the church.
In 2012, five acres of land with a derelict cottage came up for sale, adjacent to the church, which we were able to purchase and four years later Mountain Lodge obtained planning permission for a church cemetery on part of this land. The remainder of the land and the site of the old cottage will be used to fulfil the vision for future church development.
As part of our continuing vision for the future, in 2021 a new extension was added to the main building, to include a passenger lift, Sunday School suite and enlarged church hall and kitchen. These additional facilities will be of particular benefit during camps.
Well, that’s in the Lord’s hands! We believe that God is going to pour out His Spirit upon His people greater than in the past. We believe we are on the verge of something BIG. Come and see for yourself!
We are a diverse group of people from various backgrounds. In our meetings, you will find all generations, with different hobbies and interests. Yet we have one thing in common: our lives have been changed by God through Jesus Christ!
Mountain Lodge is an independent Pentecostal church, established approximately sixty years ago. Our present Pastor has served the church for over thirty years and is the third in succession since the church was formed. For more information on how MLPC came into existence, visit our History page.