Our Story

“From the suburbs to the Atlantic Seaboard via the inner city.”

Common Ground Sea Point started out in the inner city as the first multi-site congregation of Common Ground church in Rondebosch, back in 2009. With a heart for the inner city, Christo and Elise Bredenkamp planted this congregation at the St. Stephens church building on Bree Street on Sunday evenings. As we grew (and grew older) we moved to Green Point and launched a family-friendly morning meeting. By then Kevin Murphy together with his wife, Claire, was lead pastor and in 2017 we planted a new evening congregation in the heart of Sea Point, meeting in our current venue at the Sea Point Congregational Church. 

In 2018, after Kevin and Claire felt called by God to a church in Hong Kong, Paul Maughan, together with his wife Lee-Ann from the original Rondebosch Common Ground, took over as lead pastor. As our relationship with the Sea Point Congregational Church strengthened, we felt God lead us in early 2021 to move our morning meeting to Sea Point as well, becoming Common Ground Church Sea Point.

This move has brought a new sense of life and mission as we sink our roots into the Atlantic Seaboard. 

Why we’re here.

As a church, we exist to make authentic followers of Jesus who love God and love people.

 

We do this by:

  • Encountering the presence of God

  • Becoming like Jesus through the Gospel

  • Living on sacrificial mission to our city 

  • Being an embodied community, committed to one another in love and truth.

What we value.

 

Hope Over Hype

Our mission is to help people find the hope that only Christ provides. We do this by making the gospel central to all that we do so that everyone can be continually transformed by the good news and grace of Jesus. We don’t try to pretend to be anything other than regular people serving an extraordinary God.

Conviction Over Comfort

We are convinced that God’s Word is true, timeless and has authority over our lives. This means we submit and hold fast to it even when it goes against the prevailing ideas of our culture. We’re convinced that life according to God’s Word is the best way to live.

 

Commitment Over Convenience 

We believe the church is the family of God. As such, we value being committed to one another in love, serving one another with sacrifice and stirring one another to love God more. 

Contributors Over Consumers 

We believe in the ‘priesthood of all believers’. Everyone has been given gifts by God and has a contribution to make to the family of God. We encourage everyone to bring their contribution rather than relying on a few ‘leaders’ to do everything.