Our story as a church is a story about God’s faithfulness. God is good and He has a great plan for Hatfield, and as we look back along our journey over the last 50 years, we are amazed at how He has guided each step that has been taken. In the early 1960s, as the new town of Hatfield was growing, a group of Christians started to meet in each other’s homes. They were committed to seeing God move in Hatfield, and they invested heavily in our town through prayer and in building a brand new church at The Wades.
Over the next 25 years or so South Hatfield Evangelical Church (SHEC) faithfully reached out to the community in many ways, and greatly impacted the local area. As the years went by, however, the make-up of that community changed significantly and the church went through leaner times. The church leaders prayerfully asked how God wanted to continue His work in Hatfield. In around 1990, David Campbell (Senior Pastor of City Church St Albans) felt it was right to plant an Elim Pentecostal Church in Hatfield.
This started meeting in Mike & Heather Dyce’s home in South Hatfield while the church looked for a building in which to meet on Sundays. A “chance” conversation between David & Maureen Walker and Ray & Ruth Thompson (Ray was an elder at SHEC along with Frank Goffee and Bob Bushnell) started a sequence of events which led to the Trustees of SHEC graciously inviting City Church to take over use of their building at The Wades. Many of the older members of SHEC remained and good friendships were forged as the ‘new’ church (City Church Hatfield) built on the work started in earlier years, impacting the neighbourhood, for example, through its Mothers & Tots groups and youth & student work.
City Church Hatfield spent a wonderful 19 years at The Wades under the leadership of Mike Humphries, Gary Trew, John Hopkinson and, from late 1998, Mike & Heather Dyce. During that time City Church significantly extended the building, and when Mike & Debbie Smith joined Mike & Heather about 8 years later, the two couples had four great years leading the church together. During that time the church continued to grow, started two-morning services, and outgrew even the extended building. Architects advised that further extensions were not possible, and so the search began for a new building. In 2012, the church leaders and the building Trustees agreed the move to the church’s current location at Gracemead House, right in the centre of Hatfield. To reflect its new location, City Church Hatfield’s name was changed, shortly after the move, to Gracemead Church. What better name than Gracemead! To us it talks about being “a place (or meadow) right in the centre of God’s Grace” – somewhere that local people can find real acceptance and receive God’s love. And it is here that, under the ongoing leadership of Pastors Mike & Heather Dyce, the church is continuing the work begun by the Godly men and women of Hatfield who have gone before.
We know that God uses people to make history, and we believe that He has so much more for Hatfield. He has not finished either with us or with our town. We are confident that in another 10 years we will be even more amazed at how much further God has taken us as a church.
Come and join us on this amazing journey!
A place of LOVE; a place of LIFE
As a Church we believe that God has positioned us strategically in the midst of the community to be a blessing. In doing so he has called us to be a very visible demonstration of God’s love to Hatfield. We’re a group of ordinary people who really care for each other and for the community – as a result of being personally impacted by the love that God has for each one of us.
Our vision is to grow a body of uncompromising believers who love Jesus and follow him.
A people who are obedient and live by faith.
A people who are bold and share God’s love with others.
A people who are sacrificial and willing to ‘stand in the gap’ for individuals and our community.
We do not want just to ‘do church’. Our heart is for church to be a place of life and a place of growth for the whole family. A place of safety open to all people of every age and background. A place of healing and wholeness for every generation.
This is a significant time in our nation and our town. We believe it is a time for the church to reach out to society and to see God move in power to bring lasting transformation.
The Bible is the inspired and only infallible and authoritative written Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16).
There is one God, eternally existent in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19).
In the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, in His personal future return to this earth in power and glory. (John 3:16; Acts 1:9-11; Romans 1:3-6).
In the blessed hope – the rapture of the Church at Christ’s coming (Titus 2:13).
The only means of being cleansed from sin is through repentance and faith in the precious blood of Christ (John 14:6).
Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for personal salvation (Titus 3:5).
In water baptism by immersion (Matthew 28:19).
The redemptive work of Christ on the cross provides healing of the human body in answer to believing prayer (1 Peter 2:24).
The baptism in the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 2:4, is given to believers who ask for it.
In the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a holy life (Galatians 5:16-25).
In the resurrection of both the saved and the lost, the one to everlasting life and the other to everlasting damnation (Revelation 20:11-15).