Carrickfergus Community Church began in February 1992 when Pastors Trevor and Sandra Clarke relocated with their family from Templepatrick. Pastors Trevor and Sandra came from a background running their family Joinery business which they sold in 1991 to go into full time christian ministry with the church they attended at that time.
With a heart to serve and train others, they came to Carrickfergus to work alongside families who had been attending their previous church but who lived in Carrickfergus and wanted to focus on getting involved in their own community.
When the church first met, we came together twice on Sundays in two different community centres, this was a lot of work but right for us at the time. In October 1994 we bought some land in Sunnylands where we built the Open Door Centre, this is our community outreach base that’s hosted our volunteer led community cafe for over 20 years along with other community programs. We added an extension in January 2004 and moved our Sunday services here right up to March 2020.
We met in the Open Door Centre as a church family for a number of years but needed more space so began adding a building to meet in. We are working towards completion of our church building and are really excited about this part of our journey.
Pastors Trevor and Sandra retired in 2017 on the church’s 25th anniversary. Their son James and his wife Holly took on the pastoral leadership of the church. Pastor James continues to share in his parents heart for Carrickfergus and they are supported by the staff and leadership team.