The Beacon was born out of the local Methodist Church who had been actively seeking to respond to the new Thames Gateway developments for some years. On October 28th 2007, a small church plant team was commissioned to go and build a fresh contemporary church within the new Bridge development. Bart Woodhouse (Church Leader) and his family moved into a new house on the development in early 2008 and together with The Beacon team have begun to grow a new church on this evolving housing development.