The “Lighthouse story” began when Mike and Charmaine Eltringham became convinced that God was calling them to plant a church in Durban, and more precisely, in the beachfront/inner-city area. They submitted this vision to the leadership of the IFCC (International Fellowship of Christian Churches), with whom they were in fellowship, and received their support.

In March 1987, they moved into to a rented home in Morningside. The first meeting of what was then called “The Lord’s Place”, was held in their lounge with seven people in attendance. By the third month, they were having up to 21 people and the room was just too small, so they hired the music hall at Addington Primary School and had the first service there on the 6th July 1987 with 27 people.

Although part of the IFCC, Mike began building friendships with leaders from other church movements, most notably Chris Wienand from Glenridge, who was part of the New Covenant Ministries International (NCMI) team. Mike came to realise that the vision and values of the NCMI team was almost exactly that of The Lord’s place, and began relating to the NCMI team.

In 1997, Mike & Charmaine sensed that a personal move was in line for them and released Danie and Ronel Grobbelaar, who were part of the eldership team, to lead The Lord’s Place.

Our relationship with the NCMI team has become stronger and stronger over the years, and Danie and Ronel are now part of this team. You can read more about the team towards the end of this booklet.

In 1999, we felt that God wanted us to change the name of the church. After much prayer and discussion, we decided to call the church Lighthouse Church, as so many prophetic words had indicated that we would become a lighthouse in this area.

In December 2016, Danie and Ronel handed over the leadership of Lighthouse Church to Alan & Niki Wagner.