Thus far the Lord has led us

I Samuel 7: 10 – 13

Rev. Peter R Green, Church Anniversary, 27 Jul, 2008

FIVE POSSIBILITIES for a speaker for this afternoon fell through. We concluded that, despite our announcement of a guest speaker this afternoon, that was not God’s plan.

How did we get to be where we are on this 121st anniverary of Marrickville Baptist Church and 9th anniversary of Silver Street Mission? Only the Lord can have led us this far.

Where has he still to take us? We may not see the future, but we can all see the goal.

But, first, some background to why we have two anniversaries on this occasion.

The church here is Marrickville Baptist Church, as it has been since 1887, when the fledgling congregation was admitted to the Baptist Union of NSW.

But Silver Street Mission is like our trading name. The congregation had not been able to afford to pay me a full stipend for a long time, and it came to the point in 1999 where they could not really afford a stipend.

So I advised the church that I would seek my own income, but still preach on Sunday mornings and conduct the prayer meeting. But the church had to recognise that it is here for mission, it had to make mission a cornerstone of its existence. We are not a club for retired Baptists: we are a mission to bring good news of Jesus Christ to a needy world, starting with our own town and our own street. We are the mission conducted by Baptists centred on Silver Street.

And that is how we have been since 1 August,1999. And that is why we celebrate the dual anniversaries today.

Sunday Schools

In February 1887, some members of Petersham Baptist Church rented a hall in Illawarra Road, and began a Sunday School.

The Sunday School grew, and, by July, enough people were involved that the twelve core attenders felt confident to establish a lasting ministry. They formed themselves into Marrickville Baptist Church, and the church was welcomed into the Union of Churches in September of the same year.

Sunday School has often been an important part of the life of this church.

In fact, I first heard of Marrickville Baptist Church because of the Sunday School.

On Sunday mornings, Chris and I would lie in bed and listen to 2CH. Then I would get up and drive from Merrylands to Fairfield for Sunday School and the morning service.

2CH had brief programs about interesting events in churches, and one morning it was about the Marrickville Baptist All Age Sunday School, which was the biggest in NSW at the time. I was fascinated by the report. They interviewed the pastor — Alan Tester, whom I had known from Cabramatta Baptist Church.

By 1984, when I arrived, there was no Sunday School. There was barely even a church, because the members had, in fact, voted to close down, and then rescinded that motion. They had bigger numbers but less hope than we have today.

Several members asked for an adult Sunday School class. My wife, Chris, agreed to run it, and Dr Peter Burchett said he would run a Sunday School for the Green children and the Bautista children together with a handful of others he thought might like to attend.

There were four Greens, three Bautistas, and about 10 other children in the first group, with about 8 adults in the class Chris ran.

The next Sunday, there were about 50 children and 8 adults.

The Sunday after, around 75 or 80 children. The numbers peaked at around 110 children about six weeks after the Sunday School started. Each Tuesday in College Chapel, everyone wanted to hear how big our Sunday School had become. They prayed excitedly about it. If only some had came across to help! The chaos of 100 children washed across that adult class and eventually killed it. Too many of the class members had to help with the kids.

So growth in one area led to the death in another.

I am glad that some of those children did come to personal faith in Jesus and still live it out. But we learnt that numbers don’t always equate to real growth. Eventually, we had to shut down the Sunday School. We just didn’t have the resources.

This year, we have recommenced a Sunday School, just an adults class. It meets most Sundays. The participants have said they feel they understand the sermon better if they have attended Sunday School first.

The Lord leads us. Sometimes across level ground, sometimes amidst rough rocks. The Lord’s leading is not revealed by the ease of walking, but by the presence of the Shepherd.

Pastors

And, when we talk about Shepherds, we must think of some of the pastors here.

The first pastor, Rev. A. J Middleton, commenced his ministry in November 1887. For a time after his settlement, his services were shared by Marrickville Church and an early Leichhardt Church which later closed down. There is another Leichhardt Church now.

When it no longer had Leichhardt’s help, Marrickville could not meet Mr Middleton’s stipend needs, and he eventually left.

I need to skip briefly past pastors like the young and enthusiastic evangelist, Mr Charles Boyall, and barely mention Mr Straughen’s 14 years of steady growth, peaking at over 90 members.

I have to say too little about the pastors who died in office. Mr Cameron lasted 18 months, and his immediate successor, Mr Nolan, died after only 14 months. The church was devastated. But these two events were in many ways the close of an era.

Some pastors had considerable impact outside Marrickville. Brian Powell came as a Student Pastor in 1982 and is now lecturer in theology at Morling College Mr S A MacDonald’s Christian Endeavour work was as notable as his pastoral work. And Stan Butchard later became General Superintendant of the Baptist Churches — as close as we Baptists get to an Archbishop.

I want to focus on three men: the three Ws.

Mr Wingfield’s long pastorate from 1923 to 1941 included a year as President of the Baptist Union. He founded the District Association of churches, was a tireless worker for the victims of the Great Depression, and a leader in church growth.

During his time, Marrickville Church became well known throughout Sydney for its welfare work. The Tribune, the Communist newspaper, concluded that the church was a fraud and sent the deputy editor to investigate.

He was converted that night and eventually became a deacon of the church.

Mr Wingfield had a balanced view of the gospel. A church which focuses on social action to the exclusion of evangelism is not true to the gospel, nor is a church which evangelises but fails to minister to the poor, the sick, the needy, and the oppressed.

Jesus sent his disciples out to heal and to preach. He looked after bodies, not just souls. We are called to do the work of ministry and to declare the presence of God’s kingdom.

Mr Wilkins was next. I had the privilege to meet him twice. He was old and blind by then, but still a remarkably gracious and caring man.

Mr Wingfield was the church planter, Mr Wilkins was the nurturer. I could not get a clear picture of church numbers during Mr Wilkins’ ministry. He was not a statistics man. I am sure he’d have said, “What interest are numbers? It’s people who count!” Unfortunately, I was a people, and I was trying to count, but I couldn’t see what was going on. It seems that numbers fluctuated, and may have reached 200 before declining during the final years of Mr Wilkins’ ministry.

Mr Wilkins was an Air Force Chaplain for much of his time at Marrickville, even after the war ended. This may have limited his ministry here.

The final W, J B Wilson, arrived in 1949 and stayed until the end of 1953. Although he was an effective evanglist, and managed to win people to Christ, the Scots who had been the mainstay of church growth since World War I were moving out. There was a flood of Greeks and Italians who led the waves of immigrants from around the world who have contributed to making Marrickville one of Australia’s most culturally–diverse districts, but the church found it difficult to reach out to them effectively.

Mr Wilson has a special place in my memory, because he was one of our first Church Anniversary speakers after I arrived here.

I avoid jargon when I preach. What does redemption mean? What does repentance mean? I talk about changing our mind, about turning around and going God’s way, about recognising our rebellion against God. I want people to hear the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus. And I want them to hear it in contemporary terms. I want them to sit up and listen, and not say, “I heard that years ago.”

Some people complained that I didn’t preach the old fashioned gospel, and, when they suggested Mr Wilson as the speaker, several said, “We will hear some old fashioned gospel preaching that day!”

Mr Wilson preached about the Good Samaritan. It was a good evangelistic sermon.

I don’t know what had been said to him about me, but I am sure it was no coincidence that he used nearly every term and expression I used, in the way I would have used it, and no one ever complained about that aspect of my preaching again.

I can’t really analyse my own ministry here: someone else can do that. I know it has had shortcomings, and that I am more of a teacher than a pastor. But perhaps what George Antonijevic said about me at my 60th birthday celebration might explain something.

He said, “You are the only person I have ever met who has completely broken down and old car using only a hacksaw.”

OK, I did sneak an axe into the project once or twice, but George had a point. I can persevere. And the Bible says,

The person who perseveres to the end will be saved.

I have the ability to endure, to outlast the difficult people, to keep going when I’m tempted to throw in the towel. I have modelled that, and I want you to learn from me. I want you to hang on to the end, no matter how bleak things look, because, after night comes the morning, after the tomb comes resurrection.

Think about our pastors. Look at how, when a crunch has come, God has so often placed the right person in the right place at the right time. In this, hitherto the Lord has led us.

People

But the real strength of this church through those years has been its people.

There is a plaque in the hall in memory of old Job Rushton. He was not really a foundation member. He joined a little later.

But he was proud of his association with the early days of the church, and rightly so.

But his greatest contribution was that he was the patriarch of a family which still follows Christ and still has its Baptist representatives.

I could draw attention to one of our more recent families — but I won’t, because the Bautistas are all easily embarrassed. This anonymous family has done much the same. And I hope that I will live to see the day when DeAndro Bautista or some other Bautista not even yet born will be a leader in Baptist advance in our world.

But not all families go that way. For example, Luke was music director in an Anglican church, and has become an Anglican. They kept telling him, “You are such a Baptist.” It helped him see the value in what he gained among us.

Many families produce children who choose not to follow in Christian faith at all, but our church has still impacted on them. They might have become counsellors or survey assistants or something else, yet many of them still carry a Christian concept, that we exist to change the world and to change lives; to establish justice and set the bad things right.

Of all faiths, the Jewish and the Christian are the most strongly committed to such beliefs. Western civilisation would have been impossible without the Biblical belief that history has a goal, that we are players in a drama which will end in perfection, in release, in salvation for all who are willing to receive it.

Conclusion

We at Marrickville Baptist Church, we of Silver Street Mission, are part of that great commission.

A time came when we were ready to close down. We couldn’t afford our insurances and couldn’t stay open uninsured. We needed over $1000 after everyone had given more than they could afford. We prayed so earnestly that last weekend, but without hope.

On Sunday afternoon, I was despondent. We had prayed, but heaven’s floor was bullet proof.

I didn’t know what to do. I had checked the mail on Friday morning, and the box would be empty, but I looked just in case.

There were two letters. An insurance payout on a burglary months before, and the only bequest we have had in the 24 years I have been here. It was from a man who had never attended this church, but we had ministered to him when he was in need. The two cheques covered our bills and left us nearly $1000 in the black. And somebody had replaced the stolen goods anyway, not knowing our need: it was just a kind gift.

Does our God have a plan for us?

The story can be repeated so many times: God provided when we had no reason for hope. He wants us here to do his will.

Have you been among us and moved on? Then take your Christian commitment with you: be part of God’s great purpose of change in the cause of God’s kingdom.

And if you are not yet committed to Christ, you can change: you can repent, believe, change your life direction, you can become part of the vast army of those who change lives and change society in the name of Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. so tiny, yet it grows into a substantial bush. The Kingdom of God is like a handful of yeast in a barrel of dough, spreading quietly through the whole lump. One by one, step by step, side by side, we chip away at injustice, at unrighteousness, at foolishness, until the day comes when Jesus returns and says, “You have done enough — I will finish it now!”

It was for this that he died: obedient unto death, even death on a cross. And it was for this that he rose again, so that none of us need ever fear that our labour will be in vain.

God has led us this far: may He bless us all as we seek his Kingdom and his will in our town.

AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2008. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)