Since the beginning of Fullbridge as a church, people have come to trust in Jesus and have begun a journey with him at the centre of their lives. Here are the brief stories of a few of our church members who have been on that journey for varying lengths of time.

“When we moved to Maldon, Fullbridge Church offered us a warm welcome. Eighteen years and three children later we are still part of the every growing and lovely group of people at the bottom of Market Hill. We have enjoyed the love and care of our church family through the highs and lows of our own family life through spiritual and at times very practical support. As a diverse group of people, we enjoy being together and as my daughter says “church is fun” but most of all we encourage one another in our faith; spurring each other on to follow Jesus in our daily lives.”

Fullbridge Church has its origins in the Brethren movement which started around 1830. The movement exploded during the second half of the 19th century, and independent churches sprang up all over Britain.

One of the characteristics of the movement was its passion for mission abroad and evangelism at home. Although the individual congregations were independent, by the beginning of the 20th century they recognized the need to co-operate to promote outreach, and one organisation which supported evangelistic efforts in England was “Counties Evangelistic Work”.

This was very fruitful in reaching more towns and villages with the gospel, and in 1922 a ‘Counties’ evangelist, Samuel Glen, brought a tent mission to Heybridge, pitching it next to the canal.

As a result of his preaching (and singing!) twenty-six people were converted and baptised and started to meet together as Christians. At first they met in rented rooms, but in due course they felt the need to have a building of their own, to meet the needs of the congregation and to serve as a venue for gospel activities.

A plot of land was obtained in a central location and in 1937 the new building was completed and given the name Fullbridge Gospel Hall. In 1991 the name was changed from Fullbridge Gospel Hall to Fullbridge Evangelical Church.

During the first fifty years the building received several alterations to modernize its facilities, but by the beginning of the 21st century it was clear that the Fullbridge building needed serious improvement and enlargement.

Major building work was commenced in summer 2002 and completed by the following spring, adding a second storey with two rooms and a minor hall at the rear along with new kitchen and toilets; the main hall and the roof were also renovated at the same time.

In 2012 Fullbridge Church celebrated its 75th anniversary, with a special weekend of meetings.

We meet every Sunday at 10.30am for worship, communion and Bible teaching, with separate activities for children and teenagers during the second part of the service, except on the first Sunday of each month when we have a Family Service followed by a fellowship lunch.

During the week we have several home-groups which meet for prayer, study and fellowship. Details of these and other activities can be found in our monthly calendar.

As well as a range of our own activities we have always supported wider evangelistic works such as Counties, and overseas gospel work, especially missionaries working under the umbrella organisation ‘Echoes of Service’, and several people from Fullbridge have gone abroad to do missionary work over the years.

Today Fullbridge is actively involved in ‘Partnership’, a support organisation for independent churches; we are also members of the Evangelical Alliance.

We also practise baptism for those who want to publicly state their faith in Jesus by “full immersion”. We regularly remember the significance of Jesus’ death for us in the sharing of communion together – on Sundays and in our home groups.

Leadership – we encourage every member to use their God-given gifts so that everyone contributes to the life of the church. Some also have specific leadership roles for example as elders or deacons.

Counties – https://www.countiesuk.org/
Echoes – https://www.echoesinternational.org.uk
Partnership – https://www.partnershipuk.org/
Evangelical Alliance – https://www.eauk.org/