About our Church

The Local Church should be a local expression of the fullness of the Corporate Body of Christ

The vision, or mission is to make Chippenham, Wiltshire, a place of focus. To draw many people to the town, who are seeking refuge in the redemptive, forgiving, merciful nature of God. To let God's salvation and healing come to them so that they would receive the remission of their sins.

Both Dr. Stephen Houston and Rev. Barry Scott are ordained Pentecostal Ministers through the Assemblies of God Pentecostal denomination and their (International Fellowship). The Pentecostal denomination is the largest Protestant Church on earth, with nearly 600 million members approximately. The Assemblies of God is a grouping within the Pentecostal Church and its membership world wide is 58 million members approximately. And, the Assemblies of God (International Fellowship) has 700,000 members in North America, 14,500,00 in South America and 50,000 in Europe, mostly in Scandinavia.

However, Bethel Pentecostal Holiness Church is a  member of The Pentecostal Holiness Church of Great Britain and Ireland. This new movement is the motivating pioneering purpose of a growing number of Pentecostal Churches. The Pentecostal Holiness Church is strongly Trinitarian, with a Wesleyan Methodist understanding regarding Holiness, coupled with a Classical Pentecostal statement of belief. This emphasizes that the Church is Revivalist in style and presentation, with an Episcopal form of Church Government. Proclaiming the Glorious Gospel Message of the cross, personal conviction, repentance, discipleship, obedience and availability to a heavenly calling to be God's inheritance is the overall emphasis when it comes to the message of the Church. The Church also believes that by preaching true repentance and holiness, it will bring true revival and the life of the nation will be changed!

The result of this has been exciting and innovative although within Pentecostalism it is not new. Most African American, Afro Caribbean and Afro European Pentecostal denominations and churches have an Episcopal form of government with Bishops and a distinct separated clergy, laity, structure. This is also true with some of the Apostolic Churches within Pentecostalism, but not all of them. But, the real issue is loving Jesus, worshipping the Lord and doing the work of the ministry.  

So what does all that mean for anyone who wants to join or visit Bethel Pentecostal Holiness Church, Chippenham?

Well the first and most obvious thing is that visually our choir will wear Gospel choir robes. Also our ordained ministers wear the clerical collar and from time to time. These are known as preaching gowns or robes. To find out more about the reasons why we do what we do and also this new pioneering movement that you may want to be part of, then please click on the link: (Here) 

For Dr. Houston and Rev. Scott this is all normal anyway as Dr. Houston was formerly ordained and conducted his ministry within Methodism and, in the UK and Ireland the Methodist ministers have always worn the clerical collar, robes etc., and, Rev. Scott originates from a Catholic and then Church of England background before joining a Charismatic group and eventually being ordained into Pentecostalism.

The second most obvious thing is that those ordained ministers have very different but complimentary roles within the Church. One may have mostly of a pulpit ministry preaching. Another may have a very Pastoral role ministering and attending to the needs of the people on a personal basis. Another may be a teacher etc. The idea is to fulfill the scriptural five - fold ministry within the Church local. So, in a way, just like larger Catholic, Orthodox, or Anglican (Episcopal) Churches have a number of clergy on staff all doing different jobs, our Church works similarly.

The purpose is to fulfill a shared ministry and not just to be reliant on the one man ministry.

However, we still have the overseeing minister, or what we call the senior minister who has overall charge of running the Church. You could describe it as a Pentecostal Church that has a Church of England (Episcopal or Anglican) style of government.