LCC History Page
A BRIEF HISTORY
Limerick City Church (LCC) was birthed in September 2013, amidst a set of divinely orchestrated circumstances which the Lord brought about in leading Keith and Candace Malcomson to pioneer this new work. At its commencement Keith had been in full-time ministry for over twenty years. His first seven years of full-time ministry involved periodic travelling with an evangelistic team and overseeing a local church in Scotland. After leaving Scotland in the year 2000 he travelled for the next thirteen years to various nations preaching, running short-term Bible schools, as well as ministering at churches, and running conventions. For the first eight of those thirteen years he worked closely with B.H. Clendennen in the oversight of the work of School of Christ International (SOC) in Europe and further-a-field.
In August 2005, Keith ran the first annual four-week Bible school (SOC) in Limerick City. Over the following years students came in from more than twenty-five different nations to attend the school. It was at the SOC early in 2006 in Limerick City that Candace was born again and baptised in the Holy Ghost. It was at the same school that Keith fell in love with her and in September 2006, married her in Limerick. She was originally from South Africa and had been working as Head of Strings in Cork School of Music. She first attended, and then went on to help run every school ever ran in Ireland from 2005 through until 2021. The Lord placed them together with a strange connection to Limerick from the very beginning to fulfil a plan in God’s own heart. From the time of their marriage they walked through great and constant trials, opposition, and betrayals as they travelled ministering God’s Word. But this forged them together as one in the service of the Lord.
In 2013, a sudden and unexpected set of events took place which changed the direction of their labour and focus. They normally travelled every other weekend to minister somewhere and they were looking forward, with great expectation, to one of their busiest years yet in 2014 with numbers of doors open into various nations from Ukraine to Australia and many new and diverse projects in the process of planning in European nations. But in August of 2013 during a three week school held in Limerick the Lord gave Keith three messages to preach in a series called ‘Choose Your Church’. Little did they realize how much these messages would change the entire direction of their ministry and lives. By the last of those three messages a set of circumstances were set in play that led to this change.
During their years of travelling they had seen multitudes of sheep scattered on the hills without shepherds to care for them, as well as disorder in churches, no church discipline or correction, and dysfunction among most leaders. They became convinced that the Lord was now providentially calling them to found a new church in the city of Limerick which would be built upon a biblical basis where sheep could be safely fed, led, and protected, with Christ alone being central and the teaching of scripture upheld in all things. A deep heartfelt burden to protect Christ’s sheep from abuse was paramount in this decision in starting a new church.
It was not an easy decision to stop travelling to raise up this local church. To begin a new work in a living room ‘from scratch’ with a few young believers caused great searching’s of heart and mind and it drove them to an earnest seeking after the will and mind of God. During that first year almost daily the Devil whispered in Keith’s ear that he was deceived, that he was making a big mistake in leaving his travelling ministry, that every door to other lands would close if he followed this path, and that nothing would come of this new work. But he determined to go forward in the will of God.
The first service was held on Sunday 15th September, 2013. During the following few weeks’ seven people were in attendance, five of whom later left. The initial meetings were held in homes where Keith preached and taught between a cooker and washing machine, and Candace led worship on a rickety toy keyboard. These were wonderful, simple, and precious times of gathering around Christ and His Word and enjoying sweet fellowship with the saints as the family of God. From the beginning LCC considered Sunday to be the Lord’s Day and a day to spend together in worship unto the Lord and in fellowship in edifying one another. They ate together, testified, asked and answered questions, prayed for each other, as well as sought the mind of God on all things.
After seven months of meeting in homes, LCC finally found an appropriate meeting place to rent in Limerick City at 74a O’Connell Street. Meeting in the heart of the city fulfilled their desire and was the answer to their many prayers to begin reaching out to those in need of the Gospel as well as to have a place where hungry believers could come to be fed. The first meeting on O’Connell Street was on Sunday 20th April, 2014. From the very beginning the very worst of sinners made their way to the door of the church to hear of Christ, His love, and of His power to change lives. Hundreds came and hundreds went but a few stayed and became a part of what God was doing. The Lord brought in individuals who were sincerely seeking after the Lord and longing for a spiritual home where they could hear from Christ and grow in Him. In 2018 we rented the upstairs floor. Bible Schools, weddings, kids clubs, and conventions were held in this building as we sought to establish ourselves as a functioning church.
From the very beginning all recorded messages were placed on our website as audio files. Then in 2016, Brother Sof was burdened to video the Sunday messages and to post them on YouTube. The first one was posted on the 10th March, 2016, called The Dung Gate, a message from Nehemiah on how to have a healthy functioning church. From 2020 the Wednesday night Bible studies were also uploaded to YouTube.
In October 2019 Margaret Curtin was prayed for by Keith and Candace and set aside as a deaconess. Her help to Candace and LCC was vital and beneficial in the practical business of caring for the church building on a weekly basis. That year was a hard year for Keith and Candace. Candace called it the worst year of her life. Many left us after being shown much love and after much labour to help them. There were also many discouragements and opposition in their ministry in other lands.
When Covid-19 broke out in March 2020 we used our online presence to the full in seeking to reach people. We purchased a good quality camera for this task. In September that year Sermonindex posted our message series The Wise and Foolish Virgins on their YouTube page. This coincided with Keith’s Great Reset messages which literally reached hundreds of thousands of people worldwide within weeks. Over the next year, at minimum, several thousand people were listening weekly to each message placed online and thousands of people, including leaders, sinners, new converts, as well as mature believers were e-mailing and identifying with the message that was being preached at LCC. At the end of 2020, Candace called it the best year of her life. That was a radical change in just one year!
In December 2020, LCC moved from the rented premises on O’Connell St., and after much renovating work, we were able to rent no.1 Baker Place, on Tait Square. Again, this is a building in the heart of the city. Baker Place had formerly been a Pub and Night Club. The pulpit now stands where a sound desk once stood where Sof was the club DJ. Some of our present members used and dealt in drugs in this building. These same brothers now stand at this pulpit exhorting and preaching. What a radical transformation of lives and a building.
Sadly in March 2020, immediately prior to the Covid outbreak, Candace was diagnosed with breast cancer. When she stood and announced this to the church she said this was not about her but about the salvation of souls and a spiritual revival and that this must be the focus of our prayers as a church. In June she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given six months to live. The church immediately went to fervent prayer. When the ladies gathered to pray they experienced mighty fillings of the Spirit. This was a remarkable period of time. The Lord answered many prayers and sustained us. Candace abounded in good works and ministry during this time. She was courageous and brave, walking in victory daily and exhorting others. She lived out a sanctified life until the end dying strong in faith on the 7th of August 2022. She left a testimony of what an older woman in the church is to be, a Woman of God, and a Mother in Israel. This was the first official funeral of an LCC member. God buries His workmen but carries on the work.
Within 5 weeks Keith returned to the pulpit to preach. Through intense deep grief he continued to minister the Word of God in reaching many nations weekly through the messages being broadcast online. The year 2023 was a year of continual slow growth in numbers with new converts added through real conversion experiences as well as Christians joining us who either were local or travelled in from other towns in Ireland, or moved to Limerick from other countries.
On Sunday 2nd July 2023 we ordained and set apart Sofian Tlili to the spiritual ministry and task of eldership within LCC. This was another part of the progressive natural organic growth of this church as it gives birth to its own leaders.
Limerick City Church (LCC) was birthed in September 2013, amidst a set of divinely orchestrated circumstances which the Lord brought about in leading Keith and Candace Malcomson to pioneer this new work. At its commencement Keith had been in full-time ministry for over twenty years. His first seven years of full-time ministry involved periodic travelling with an evangelistic team and overseeing a local church in Scotland. After leaving Scotland in the year 2000 he travelled for the next thirteen years to various nations preaching, running short-term Bible schools, as well as ministering at churches, and running conventions. For the first eight of those thirteen years he worked closely with B.H. Clendennen in the oversight of the work of School of Christ International (SOC) in Europe and further-a-field.
In August 2005, Keith ran the first annual four-week Bible school (SOC) in Limerick City. Over the following years students came in from more than twenty-five different nations to attend the school. It was at the SOC early in 2006 in Limerick City that Candace was born again and baptised in the Holy Ghost. It was at the same school that Keith fell in love with her and in September 2006, married her in Limerick. She was originally from South Africa and had been working as Head of Strings in Cork School of Music. She first attended, and then went on to help run every school ever ran in Ireland from 2005 through until 2021. The Lord placed them together with a strange connection to Limerick from the very beginning to fulfil a plan in God’s own heart. From the time of their marriage they walked through great and constant trials, opposition, and betrayals as they travelled ministering God’s Word. But this forged them together as one in the service of the Lord.
In 2013, a sudden and unexpected set of events took place which changed the direction of their labour and focus. They normally travelled every other weekend to minister somewhere and they were looking forward, with great expectation, to one of their busiest years yet in 2014 with numbers of doors open into various nations from Ukraine to Australia and many new and diverse projects in the process of planning in European nations. But in August of 2013 during a three week school held in Limerick the Lord gave Keith three messages to preach in a series called ‘Choose Your Church’. Little did they realize how much these messages would change the entire direction of their ministry and lives. By the last of those three messages a set of circumstances were set in play that led to this change.
During their years of travelling they had seen multitudes of sheep scattered on the hills without shepherds to care for them, as well as disorder in churches, no church discipline or correction, and dysfunction among most leaders. They became convinced that the Lord was now providentially calling them to found a new church in the city of Limerick which would be built upon a biblical basis where sheep could be safely fed, led, and protected, with Christ alone being central and the teaching of scripture upheld in all things. A deep heartfelt burden to protect Christ’s sheep from abuse was paramount in this decision in starting a new church.
It was not an easy decision to stop travelling to raise up this local church. To begin a new work in a living room ‘from scratch’ with a few young believers caused great searching’s of heart and mind and it drove them to an earnest seeking after the will and mind of God. During that first year almost daily the Devil whispered in Keith’s ear that he was deceived, that he was making a big mistake in leaving his travelling ministry, that every door to other lands would close if he followed this path, and that nothing would come of this new work. But he determined to go forward in the will of God.
The first service was held on Sunday 15th September, 2013. During the following few weeks’ seven people were in attendance, five of whom later left. The initial meetings were held in homes where Keith preached and taught between a cooker and washing machine, and Candace led worship on a rickety toy keyboard. These were wonderful, simple, and precious times of gathering around Christ and His Word and enjoying sweet fellowship with the saints as the family of God. From the beginning LCC considered Sunday to be the Lord’s Day and a day to spend together in worship unto the Lord and in fellowship in edifying one another. They ate together, testified, asked and answered questions, prayed for each other, as well as sought the mind of God on all things.
After seven months of meeting in homes, LCC finally found an appropriate meeting place to rent in Limerick City at 74a O’Connell Street. Meeting in the heart of the city fulfilled their desire and was the answer to their many prayers to begin reaching out to those in need of the Gospel as well as to have a place where hungry believers could come to be fed. The first meeting on O’Connell Street was on Sunday 20th April, 2014. From the very beginning the very worst of sinners made their way to the door of the church to hear of Christ, His love, and of His power to change lives. Hundreds came and hundreds went but a few stayed and became a part of what God was doing. The Lord brought in individuals who were sincerely seeking after the Lord and longing for a spiritual home where they could hear from Christ and grow in Him. In 2018 we rented the upstairs floor. Bible Schools, weddings, kids clubs, and conventions were held in this building as we sought to establish ourselves as a functioning church.
From the very beginning all recorded messages were placed on our website as audio files. Then in 2016, Brother Sof was burdened to video the Sunday messages and to post them on YouTube. The first one was posted on the 10th March, 2016, called The Dung Gate, a message from Nehemiah on how to have a healthy functioning church. From 2020 the Wednesday night Bible studies were also uploaded to YouTube.
In October 2019 Margaret Curtin was prayed for by Keith and Candace and set aside as a deaconess. Her help to Candace and LCC was vital and beneficial in the practical business of caring for the church building on a weekly basis. That year was a hard year for Keith and Candace. Candace called it the worst year of her life. Many left us after being shown much love and after much labour to help them. There were also many discouragements and opposition in their ministry in other lands.
When Covid-19 broke out in March 2020 we used our online presence to the full in seeking to reach people. We purchased a good quality camera for this task. In September that year Sermonindex posted our message series The Wise and Foolish Virgins on their YouTube page. This coincided with Keith’s Great Reset messages which literally reached hundreds of thousands of people worldwide within weeks. Over the next year, at minimum, several thousand people were listening weekly to each message placed online and thousands of people, including leaders, sinners, new converts, as well as mature believers were e-mailing and identifying with the message that was being preached at LCC. At the end of 2020, Candace called it the best year of her life. That was a radical change in just one year!
In December 2020, LCC moved from the rented premises on O’Connell St., and after much renovating work, we were able to rent no.1 Baker Place, on Tait Square. Again, this is a building in the heart of the city. Baker Place had formerly been a Pub and Night Club. The pulpit now stands where a sound desk once stood where Sof was the club DJ. Some of our present members used and dealt in drugs in this building. These same brothers now stand at this pulpit exhorting and preaching. What a radical transformation of lives and a building.
Sadly in March 2020, immediately prior to the Covid outbreak, Candace was diagnosed with breast cancer. When she stood and announced this to the church she said this was not about her but about the salvation of souls and a spiritual revival and that this must be the focus of our prayers as a church. In June she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given six months to live. The church immediately went to fervent prayer. When the ladies gathered to pray they experienced mighty fillings of the Spirit. This was a remarkable period of time. The Lord answered many prayers and sustained us. Candace abounded in good works and ministry during this time. She was courageous and brave, walking in victory daily and exhorting others. She lived out a sanctified life until the end dying strong in faith on the 7th of August 2022. She left a testimony of what an older woman in the church is to be, a Woman of God, and a Mother in Israel. This was the first official funeral of an LCC member. God buries His workmen but carries on the work.
Within 5 weeks Keith returned to the pulpit to preach. Through intense deep grief he continued to minister the Word of God in reaching many nations weekly through the messages being broadcast online. The year 2023 was a year of continual slow growth in numbers with new converts added through real conversion experiences as well as Christians joining us who either were local or travelled in from other towns in Ireland, or moved to Limerick from other countries.
On Sunday 2nd July 2023 we ordained and set apart Sofian Tlili to the spiritual ministry and task of eldership within LCC. This was another part of the progressive natural organic growth of this church as it gives birth to its own leaders.