Rooted in the dreams of its founders and strengthened by partners like ZimWorX, Northside’s new centre is built to serve the community seven days a week. For Northside Community Church, the new community centre is the next chapter of a story that began in the 1970s and 1980s, when its founding members imagined a place that would serve the wider community and not only its congregation.
“Northside started as a community centre, not as a church,” says Pastor Gary Cross, Senior Pastor at Northside.
The original vision was a place with lasting impact from Monday to Sunday, and that ethos still shapes how the church uses its facilities today, from hosting a school during the week to supporting a range of community programmes. The new centre responds to a community that increasingly looks to Northside for spaces to connect, learn and grow.
It is also about what comes next. The first phase of Northside was built in the 1980s, with further development in the 1990s, before progress stalled. That pause gave the church a chance to ask what it wanted to leave behind.
“One of the other legs of motivation is legacy,” Pastor Cross says. “What do we leave for our children and grandchildren?”
Part of the answer lies in a piece of land that had long posed a puzzle because of its unusual shape. The church once considered a prayer garden or other modest uses for it. The new development turns that underused space into something of far wider benefit.
The need is clearest among the young. A growing number of teenagers, students and young adults are taking part in Northside’s ministries, and the existing facilities are stretched. Teenage activities run from a small space, and young adults sometimes meet in a classroom. The new centre will give these groups room to expand, build relationships and develop their programmes, and its smaller gathering spaces will support other ministries and community activities. The hope is that it becomes more than extra seating and meeting rooms: a place that draws people in and builds a stronger sense of community, particularly among young people.
None of this happens alone. Westprop worked on the design, while others contributed financial and engineering support. Pastor Cross is especially warm when he speaks of Northside’s longstanding relationship with ZimWorX, describing himself as a great admirer of the organisation and its work across Zimbabwe.
That relationship is practical as well as friendly. ZimWorX has supported Northside’s ministry, its reading programme and its food pantry, and the partnership has opened doors for people connected to the church to work with the organisation. Pastor Cross also points to ZimWorX’s wider contribution to Zimbabweans through its partnerships with schools, orphanages and other community initiatives. For him, it shows what becomes possible when business and community organisations pull in the same direction.
“What does it mean for organisations like ZimWorX to be involved in projects that positively impact the community?” he asks, pointing to the active role private enterprise can play in community development.
On site, teams are working around the clock to make as much progress as possible before construction pauses around Christmas. Work resumes in the second week of January 2027, with completion anticipated by the end of February 2027.
For Northside, though, the significance reaches well beyond a completion date. The hope is that the community will embrace the centre as part of everyday life, a place where young people find room to grow, ministries expand and lasting connections form. It is also a reminder that community development is strengthened when organisations with a shared vision invest in something bigger than themselves.
For Northside, the new centre is more than another phase of construction. It honours the vision of those who came before, serves the needs of the present community, and leaves something meaningful for generations to come.