When we first moved to Farnham Common, we had to start church-hunting, and we visited a number of churches in the “greater Slough” area. We didn’t feel comfortable anywhere! There was a big central church, where we felt we could come and go for months before anyone would take any notice of us, and a new estate church, where we could have been sucked in to almost every activity there was; we wanted a “little rest” after Yorkshire, but not inactivity. Shortly after, we visited Coleford and my father looked up the area in his BU handbook and asked if we’d tried the church at Beaconsfield; we had been trying churches south of Farnham Common, but not to the north. So we tried it, and almost before the service started we knew that that was the church for us.
The building was in a house-sized plot in the middle of Baring Road, a residential road – we think the plot had been bequeathed in order to build a church. With an unimpressive building, it was the quality and welcome of the congregation that had made the impact on us, with the majority of the congregation being below retirement age, and many in our age-range and younger; and there were individual chairs rather than pews, which at that time was a fairly rare innovation.
The minister was Rev John Webster[89], and I describe him, with great affection, as a somewhat clumsy man with a heart of gold. He made a lot of jokes against himself – his driving, his (lack of) do-it-yourself ability, and more – but left everyone in no doubt that he regarded himself as an ordinary fallible human being (there was no “ministerial pedestal” in sight). But he preached with some evangelistic fervour, from the heart, and was truly loved by the congregation.
We settled in well, and quickly made good friends, notably the Blundens. After a while, we found ourselves in contact with a lot of young people, who seemed to enjoy coming down to Farnham Common for Sunday evening “coffee and chat” sessions with us – perhaps just the “distance away from parents” helped. It was very good, and as I have mentioned elsewhere, they really helped us no end when we moved house just a month after Chris’ birth.
During our time at Beaconsfield, the church changed dramatically and significantly, in “easy stages”. At every stage, things began with studying the Bible, and preaching – what does the Bible teach, why do we not do that, how could we do something similar, what is God saying to us? We looked at the nature of the church, spiritual gifts, leadership roles and so on, and the changes that resulted gradually changed us from a “traditional Baptist church” to something much closer to New Testament lines. As part of that, the five deacons (Desmond Orr, Alun Davies, Andy Croall, Michael Watkins and John Carey) took on an eldership role, and then “admin” deacons were appointed. Looking at past notes, I find that I was part of a small committee responsible for a new church extension; this was to be a 2-floor building to join the church and the back hall together, involving a new kitchen and toilets, extra rooms, and the removal of the pipe organ. That must have gone well, because John Blunden and I became deacons, and I became Treasurer. Being treasurer meant bringing home the offerings to be counted (with “help” from Adrian and Chris when they were in the mood) and banked. With no home computers in those days all the records were on paper.
A few people were starting to use spiritual gifts in worship. Visits to the “Dales Bible week” introduced a few new songs. But the breakthrough came at the church weekend, held at the Wycliffe Centre, Stokenchurch and led by the late Graham Pulkingham and the Fisherfolk.
(I need to describe this weekend … to be added in due course)
After that weekend, subtle but increasingly significant changes started happening in the Church;-
· Spiritual gifts were more evident in the services, mainly the evening one … tongues and interpretation, prophesy, and the rest from time to time
· The church opened a Coffee bar/restaurant in the town; this was a joint project with the Beaconsfield Anglicans (who wanted a “genteel” day-time restaurant for shoppers) and us (who wanted somewhere in the evenings for young people) … it was a while before we realised that the two could be combined, sharing the kitchen area but with “contrasting décor” in the seating areas.
· After a few months we saw four brave youngsters appear in a Sunday evening service, the first result of the coffee bar outreach; they must have had some impact, because the following week there were 8, and the week after about 12, and … well, the church went into “emergency mode” to welcome them and help them work out the reality of the Christian message.
· Love grew … what had been companionship and friendship was transformed into something richer and deeper.
· And many other changes of a lesser significance. With some developments came a few problems, but the way the church dealt with them left a big impact on me.
I was pretty involved in all this, and leaving Baring Road was a bit of a heartbreak – but we knew that what we were doing (in moving to Reading) was right for Dad and would be right for us too. We said farewell on our last Sunday and were given a small carriage clock – and we told them we wanted them to pray for good weather for our moving day (see elsewhere for the result of that!!).
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[89] John and his wife Eve eventually retired to Hove, and came into contact with Rosalie when she and her family were living at Portslade. Both John and Eve have subsequently died, as have Desmond Orr, Andy Croall and Alun Davies.