History

Whitburn Pentecostal Church began in the summer of 1977 when a group of Christians worshiping in Harthill Pentecostal Church but living in Whitburn had the burden and vision to plant a local church. Early meetings were held in Croftmalloch Primary School on Sundays & Wednesdays along with a Sunday School.

The church grew quickly in its early days and in the summer of 1984 the present church building was built at the end of Croftmalloch Road. The pioneer pastor Tom Martin resigned in 1989 and Andrew Smith was approached to take on the leadership of the church from June 1990.

The building was extended in 1992 – to give more space to the growing congregation and offer extra office space.

In 1996 Mark Ritchie became full-time youth pastor – serving for 3 years in this role before leaving to go as a missionary to Sefton Village in the Philippines. Over the years the church has sent several into mission work both home and abroad – from as diverse places as Belfast to China.

In September 2004 Andrew Smith was approached to take on the leadership position of Area Leader with Scottish Assemblies of God. He agreed on a part-time basis (50% local church / 50% AoG). At this point Stevie Roy came to work as the Assistant Pastor in a full-time capacity.

In the summer of 2006 ANSWER day-care centre was opened to the local community – a beautiful, purpose-built day centre next to the church building. ANSWER came into being as a result of the vision of the leadership of Whitburn Pentecostal Church (under a separate charity) and is meeting many needs in our local community.

In 2012 several church members had a desire to set up West Lothian Foodbank to help support families by giving three days emergency food. It began with the conversion of the old toilet block in Whitburn but now has distribution centres throughout West Lothian supporting thousands of families each year.

In 2015, Andrew & Lois, who had pastored the church for 25 years, felt that God had clearly told them it was time to move on to new things. They have since taken on the role of pastoring a church in the east end of Glasgow. We pray for success in their work there. The church was handed over to Pastor Stevie Roy who had been on staff since 2004.

In her growing role alongside Stevie, Mary Roy achieved her Associate Status with AoG GB in 2018.