Love God. Love People. Love Life.

Our Story.

In 2014, HTB Church in London were invited to plant St Swithun’s in Bournemouth, led by Tim and Debi Matthews. Their task was an experiment: could a new church serve the city, especially younger people who didn’t consider themselves church-goers?

A small team moved into the empty building at St Swithun’s and began to meet…

The church quickly grew through informal contemporary Sunday services, the Alpha course, opened a homeless shelter, and looked to empower people through courses on marriage and addiction.

Two and a half years in, St Swithun’s joined with St Clement’s in Boscombe to relaunch their site for similar mission in the local area, partnering with its two church schools.

For the full story, check out our book!

As a community of people following Jesus, we want to be famous for love.

We love God, love people, and love life; that’s why we LOVECHURCH. (see what we did there?)

We believe that church is God’s instrument on earth to demonstrate and enact His love for all of creation. Our hope is that, together, we will love God in all we do, love the people of Bournemouth, and love the life He has called us to live!

LOVECHURCH exists for three reasons:

To play our part in the evangelisation of Bournemouth.

To see transformation in Bournemouth’s society.

To see the revitalisation of the church.

We believe in being R.E.A.L.

We put a high value on authenticity. Empty religion doesn’t interest us, but instead living the real thing; the free, full life in the power of the Holy Spirit. We aim to always be REAL:

  • Living out our love for God and our love for one another, taking time to listen patiently, speak courageously, and forgiving one another when we have done wrong.

  • We constantly talk about Jesus and always refer back to Him as the pattern for our lives and revelation of who God is.

  • Life is a journey that we are on together, sometimes it hurts but through everything we seek to encourage and help one another to walk into the freedom and dignity that Jesus has won for us.

  • We are always growing together and learning more about God’s love and His plan for our lives.