About

In March 2006, Calvary Chapel Leatherhead (CCL) began as a weekly Bible study in Ashtead as a response to Christians who were hungry for Bible teaching.  After much prayer, CCL began meeting as a local church in May 2007 on Pentecost (the birthday of the early church).

CCL believes in the priesthood of all believers (1Pe 2:5), therefore, one of our main emphases as a church is the systematic teaching of the Bible for this is what equips the Church to serve the Lord and serve one another (Eph 4:11-12; 2Tim 3:16-17).  At CCL we teach the Bible chapter by chapter, verse by verse endeavouring to give God’s people the full counsel of God (Acts 20:27).

What to expect:

CCL Hall

When visiting a new church, there is often a sense of hesitancy on the part of the visitor as they do not know what to expect.  Our Sunday worship service begins with announcements, followed by a short time of worshiping the Lord in song with both updated hymns and contemporary worship songs followed by the reading of a Psalm (the Psalms were the hymnal of the early church).  After our time of worshipping in song, the children are dismissed to their Sunday school classes where the children are taught the Bible at their level. The adults and older children then worship the Lord through the study of His Word both expounding the passage being studied and applying it to our daily lives (Neh 8:8).  Since revelation should cause us to respond to God in worship, we then have a longer time of worshiping the Lord in song in which people are free to pray between the songs. This format is typical; however we recognize God’s sovereignty and thus we desire to be faithful to His leading not to a man-made format.

Pastor

Matt Kottman was born and raised in Southern California. When he was seventeen, He felt the heavy weight of his sin and turned over control of his empty life to Jesus Christ. Shortly after Matt’s conversion, he went to Hungary to preach the gospel to the lost on a two week outreach. It was at this time, that Matt began to pray about going abroad for the sake of the Gospel.

After attending three years at Vanguard University in Orange County, California, Matt moved to Portland, Oregon following a call to ministry as the youth pastor for Calvary Fellowship of Tigard. It was in this church that Matt met and married his wife Dianna (June 1997).

Kottman Family

In November of 1997 Matt and Dianna moved to Austria. They served in a supporting role at Christliche Kirche Spittal (Spittal Christian Church) for almost two year. From there they moved to Klagenfurt, Austria where many evangelistic opportunities were laid in Matt’s path. Matt played for a semi-professional American-football team in Klagenfurt which afforded many open doors to share the gospel.  During this time Matt and Dianna began a Bible study mostly attended by athletes, teenagers, and university students, many of whom came to faith in Christ during the Kottmans’ time in Klagenfurt. Matt also taught at a missionary training centre in Spittal, Austria during his last four months in Austria. While in Klagenfurt, Dianna gave birth to their two daughters.

Towards the end of Matt and Dianna’s time in Austria, Matt and Dianna sensed the Lord’s leading to the U.K.  In March of 2003 Matt and Dianna arrived in London and began serving the body of believers at Calvary Chapel Twickenham (CCT) where Matt was the assistant pastor.  During Matt and Dianna's time at CCT, they added two sons to their family.

In May 2007, the Lord started Calvary Chapel Leatherhead (CCL).  Matt and Dianna moved to Leatherhead in August 2007 to be more intimately involved in the ministry to which God has called them.

Matt serves CCL as pastor/teacher equipping the believers for the work of service.  Part of the work of equipping the saints includes weekly school ministry, as well as a daily radio programme called Anchored Deep airing on Calvary Chapel Radio.  Dianna supports her husband homeschooling their four children, heading up children’s ministry and women’s ministry.

 

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