Join us every Sunday in Beaufort Ebbw Vale at 10am and 6pm for in-person services and livestream services
CCLI Licence 8726 OUR STORY
Soar Baptist Church (opposite our building) began life in 1851 as a fellowship of "Protestant
Dissenters from the C of E of the Denomination of the Baptists". Soar was a Welsh-speaking church until after the 1904-05 revival, when 100 were baptised and
membership
reached 254, and services began to be entirely in English. In 1950 the church described themselves still as" fundamentally a Strict Baptist Church Welsh" and
even until the 1980's the church remained fairly traditional, with membership of around 30 to 40. In 1988 a worship group was launched and in 1989 The Lighthouse (the present building) was
purchased to be developed as a community centre. In 1991 the first elders were appointed, to share
in the spiritual leadership of the Church. Two years later the fellowship affirmed
its Baptist foundations in issues such as believer's baptism. It also recognised the importance of a
shared leadership team and such ministries as apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher, and
the involvement of every member. In 1995 the church began to set up ministry groups in the areas
of pastoral care, worship, finance, outreach etc. The Church has steadily moved to accept the wide
activity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the ascended Lord. During 1992 the old chapel building was discovered to be in need of demolition and decisions were made to move out and hire various premises such as the Beaufort Ballroom and the Welfare Hall for our Sunday services with house groups been used during the week for prayer and bible study. Also certain members left to establish the Beaufort Christian fellowship and also to start a witness on the site of the 1992 Garden Festival. It was quite clear from these times that there was a desire to have our own base and decisions were
made to make "The Lighthouse " as our base of operation and to incorporate the original vision of reaching out to the community and making the building as a resource centre. Since July 1997 the church has been led by a team of elders and in May 1998 the fellowship adopted a vision and aims for the work and purpose of the church for today, in the belief that after 150 years or so of witness in Beaufort, God still has specific purposes for the Church to fulfil at this time. A building plan and building team were pulled together and the Church agreed to renovate the existing Lighthouse Building and make use of the potential that we had had all the time on our doorstep. The main building renovation was completed in Nov 2003 and since that time to our official opening on the 16th October 2004 we have been equipping the church for a 21st Century congregation. Various grants from the WDA , Blaenau Gwrent County Borough Council, Pantyfedwen Foundation Trust and the Lloyds TSB foundation have enabled us to create a warm welcoming church community centre catering for all the needs of our community. The majority of the funds needed however have come from its own members as we have dug deep showing the commitment of our people as prompted by their Christian walk with God. We are amazed what God has done for us and we are already reaping the rewards of seeing people coming to know him in a real way and Christians been blessed by the ministry and challenged to reach out in acts of service. To acknowledge a new era in the Church's life and to meet the new challenges of an upcoming generation it was decided to rename our Church as Church on the Rise - yes we are the only church actually on Beaufort Rise but also we believe that we are rising from the ashes of the past and rekindling a flame of witness in our community. In March 2020 our Leadership Team looking to the future and seeking what God's plans are for us decided unanimously that we needed a fresh impetus and that this would be better served with a different affiliation to the long established affiliation of the Baptist Union of Wales, where they felt that our DNA was quite different now than the old ties. So from the 17th March 2020 we have arranged for our covering and accountability to come under an affiliation with the Destiny Church
Network based in Glasgow Scotland. The Destiny Network is a growing apostolic movement of churches founded by Apostolic leaders Andrew and Sue Owen. In 1991 Andrew and Sue Owen moved to Scotland with a prophetic word hanging over them - "Not a village, not a town, not a city, but a nation and nations turning to Christ." God has been so faithful; from the first church planted in Glasgow, today there are now over 1400 churches across Europe, Africa, Asia and America. Interestingly our current Senior Leader of Church on the Rise - Wayne Evans grew up with Andrew in the Swansea Valley in their childhood and early teens. Their vision is to see growing churches built on biblical foundations and moving in the power of the Holy Spirit. Churches which passionately communicate the gospel and practically demonstrate the love of God in our communities. Churches which are culturally relevant, shining with truth and love in a dark world. The Bible teaches that:
"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour..." (Ecctesiastes 4:9). Together we can go further. This principle so beautifully modelled for us in the Book of Acts, where we see diverse churches flowing together - united in mission, clear on values, and being supported on the journey. That is what Destiny Church Network is all about and Church on the Rise becomes the first Destiny Network church in Wales with an exciting future ahead to see God's power and presence manifested again in the South Wales valleys. Spiritually we are seeing a change and coincidentally a physical change in the building in that our outside has been re-rendered to tackle the dampness caused by the positioning of the premises and the outside walls also painted a pale green as a sign of new growth with suitable signage depicting who we are. In January 2026 following a tough year in 2025 our Leadership Team put an Action Plan together to take the Church forward and following us been sharing in fellowship with Destiny Church based in Scotland and being part of the Destiny Church Network since March 2020 it was agreed that we change our name from Church on the. Rise to Destiny Church Heads of the Valley. We will do the necessary paperwork to confirm this and take the church forward with the theme for 2026 being Salvations and Discipleship
Praise be to God for his wonderful acts amongst us and to Him be glory and honour!
