The Well Church
The Well Church is an exciting, fresh expression of church in the Wakefield area. We're an Elim Pentecostal Church located in Wakefield and have reached out into the city for over 90 years. We are passionate about real faith that impacts the real lives of real people.
We believe for too long difficult topics and subjects have been avoided rather than discussed fully. This denies people’s lived experiences and minimizes the power and greatness of God. By talking about faith concerning real life, we believe the fullness of God can be realised in the life of the Church and the city.
Our faith is expressed in two key environments -
The gathered church community - this is on Sunday mornings or mid-week sessions, where the church gathers together as a community.
The released church community - this is where Christians do the work of Christ in their streets, workplaces, friendship groups, and schools.
Our History
Wilfred Dearnley, who was one of the group said that they “should not be hasty -let's pray and seek direction from God”. Whilst doing this they received a strong sense that God prompted them to plant a church, with the little reserves they had, they obeyed.
Wilfred Dearnley pastored the church whilst running a small business to finance the church plant. During this time he made a promise that as long as funds were available there would a place for the preached gospel.
The church occupied an old untidy building, inhabited by squatters. Once cleaned, some orange boxes obtained from a local greengrocer, along with planks of wood and brown paper made the seating for the church.
The church opened in the August of 1928 and was considered a farce from the other local churches, but they prevailed. Their first service went ahead, even though there was no heating or lighting, approximately 30 people attended, with 14 giving their lives to Christ. As the night drew in people brought candles from their homes to provide the lighting for the church.
Numbers grew along with a growing commitment to preach the gospel. This was done from a pulpit made out of orange boxes, and the seating made up of every conceivable contraption. The squatters were still in situ on the lower ground floor, and smoke would often rise through the floorboards with a strong smell of cooking, usually kippers.
Electricity was becoming increasingly available and an opportunity arose for the church to obtain gaslighting that were no longer needed from a local school. But, finding someone to install them was a problem, as the church was still suffering ridicule from other churches in the area. They were viewed as a strange bunch due to their engagement with the Holy Spirit. Plumbers refused to attend to do the works, until, they found someone from a neighbouring town in Halifax. Additionally, a cheeky request secured some old chairs from a cinema that provided seating for the congregation.
After four years an Anglican Church building came up for sale at a cost of £250, which at the time was a lot of money. The church prayed about the property and decided that if there was enough money pledged by the congregation they would buy it. This resulted in a pledge of £230, which was not enough. So with a heavy heart Pastor Dearnley went to church to let his congregation know that it was not to be. However, before the announcement, a faithful member of the church said he had made a mistake and wished to add another £20 to his pledge. So the sale could go ahead; the building is still in use today.
Throughout the history of the church, the provision of God has seen miraculous healings and financial provision. The most famous healing was just after the church had opened and reported in The Yorkshire Observer, 15 March 1929. The paper reported that a man with a broken spine and immobile after a coal pit incident received a visit from members of the church who prayed for him. As they prayed this man's spine knitted back together resulting in him being able to walk again within moments. The village was in shock, to such an extent that people lined up along the street to look in his house to watch him walk around until the early hours of that morning.
Because of the grace of God the church went from strength to strength. This has been a common theme over the years, with people coming to faith and often going out to establish ministries that expand across the globe.
February 2023 begun a new era of church planting for The Well Church with the planting of an Elim church in Pontefract.
The Well Church is an Elim Pentecostal Church
The Elim Pentecostal Church is a growing Movement of Christian congregations in the UK and Ireland.
Elim was founded in 1915 by George Jeffreys, a young Christian from Maesteg in South Wales. Jeffreys and a group of friends, known as the Elim Evangelistic Band, preached, started churches and witnessed a move of God that was characterised by miraculous healings and an explosion in the number of people becoming Christians.
In a world that can feel like a desert, our 21st-century churches seek to be a place of spiritual resource within their communities.
The founders wanted the name of their new Movement to express their vision and values, and so chose ‘Elim’, the name of an oasis in the Bible that the people of Israel discovered as they wandered through the desert. It provided shade and refreshment to all who encountered it.
Elim’s history
The year was 1915. It could hardly have been a less promising time — the full horrors of the First World War were being realised. But in Monaghan, Ireland, a new fellowship of Christians was springing up.
A young Christian from Maesteg in South Wales, George Jeffreys, was welcomed into the area and here Elim began, as a small group called the Elim Evangelistic Band. The band preached, founded churches, spreading first through the north of Ireland and then to England in the Essex area and London.
Things were moving steadily, but not spectacularly when suddenly God answered the prayers of those early pioneers in a big way. Miraculous healings became almost commonplace instead of occasional, and the number of people becoming Christians exploded. The meetings hit the headlines, and from 1924 to 1934 Principal George Jeffreys (as he became known) and his team became household names as they toured the country.
When, for instance, George Jeffreys went to Cardiff, there were only a dozen people in his first meeting in a large public hall. But two were healed of cancer, the news spread, and from then on it was difficult to control the crowds who wanted to get into the hall! Cardiff City Temple, the Elim church that resulted from that campaign, is still a flourishing Elim church today.
So why did this happen? Well, the Elim leaders held the same beliefs as other Christians, but with one important difference. They believed that God’s promises in the Bible about the Holy Spirit and healing were for Christians today. In other words, miracles didn’t stop after the Bible was written. The Elim pioneers had rediscovered God’s power, promised in the Bible to all who would completely commit their lives to follow Jesus. It was a ‘re-discovery’, not a discovery because it was nothing new. God had worked in power through different Christians throughout the centuries, right back to the dramatic miracles of the early Church so frequently mentioned in the Bible.
The foursquare teaching highlighted this rediscovery: it stated that Jesus is the Saviour, the Healer, the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit and the Coming King.
Such ‘Pentecostal’ beliefs raised a lot of opposition from some traditional church leaders at the time because miracles are always controversial. But the pioneers were just getting back to what Jesus had taught in the first place – after all, Jesus himself healed many people and had promised the Holy Spirit to his followers.
Elim took God at his Word and so God honoured that by delivering on his promises in the Bible. And he is still doing the same today!
But the vision wasn’t confined to this country. Today, Elim comprises over 550 churches in the UK and Ireland, but we are also linked to over 4,367 Elim churches in other countries. Elim is also in co-operative fellowship with thousands of Pentecostal churches around the world and has missions work in over 40 countries.
It is our belief that Elim has a significant part to play in the world today, and we are confidently looking forward to what God will do in the future.
