More About Church

So I've been hearing that people want to know about church, so I will attempt to fill you in.

We found Lifegate Baptist Church pastored by Colin Pavitt our first Sunday here. We had intended on going around to a few neighboring churches - some we had seen on the internet, but basically really liked this pastor and church in Corby, so have not done that. Other churches are in neighboring cities - Kettering, Peterborough, etc, but without a vehicle, it is fairly prohibitive for us to get there.

Things are different here - it is more difficult to travel around - even on more major routes, so it's not the same as a 35 minute trip 25 miles on the relatively easy roads of NH. 25 miles is more of an undertaking here.

Anyway, we have, through the last few weeks, asked many questions of the Pastor and his wife about them and their work here. Bill also had the opportunity to ask questions after our dinner with them last Sunday.

The conclusion of all that is that their stands reflect our position very closely, as do their practices.

The church is very small and has only a few faithful members currently - John, Rosemary, and Meghan, senior age and very faithful. Another 6 to 8 people we have seen at various services - whether just a Sunday morning, or just midweek etc. On Sunday mornings, children from age 17 to 6 come in from some neighborhood families. Rosalind, the pastor's wife, runs a Sunday School (what we call Bible Club) time for them in the back room. There are about 8 to 10 of these children that come in. This morning I started helping with them by sitting with two adolescent girls in the service to help them keep quiet. : ) Most of these kids come from difficult family circumstances and the church service is perhaps a time of refuge for them.

Rosalind plays for the hymns and will do a solo on Sunday nights a capella, and that is the sum total of their music program so far. On Wednesday night, Jack, another member, did a song with the pastor and his wife from the Kettering church.

Pastor Pavitt is considered a missionary pastor, in that he is not supported by this church here, but is helped by a couple other churches. He goes completely by faith in his income and support and has done this for years. He has pastored here for 14 years I think. He goes around to other churches and helps pastors do evangelism - door to door or street preaching or tract distribution. He also runs a British Pastor Preacher Training Unit - training other men to become pastors. He has in recent years done some studying at Emmanuel's seminary in Ireland and knows of Dr. Strausse. He has a schedule of each week day - the places that he goes out to do evangelism and witnessing and other area pastors will join him in this. His preaching is strong and he says things very reminiscent of dad like "we need to read fewer of the books about the Bible and just read the Bible" things along those lines. He was saved in the Brethren Church and eventually became Baptist.

He has a compassionate heart to reach the lost and strong preaching, the combination of which has drawn us to feel like we should serve in this church and be what help we can.

So we intend to join this church soon and although we miss our Calvary Churches in NH, it seems like there is a need here. I guess you have to be here to understand what things are like, but there are tough struggles here, and our churches in NH, despite having gone through huge upheaval and trial in recent years should know that they are indeed VERY blessed. Calvary has a great pastor, nice buildings, faithful members, piano players, singers, deacons, other teachers, cleaners, nursery workers, generous givers, and so on. These things aren't everywhere and should never be taken for granted. If nothing else, getting outside of our little box is a reminder of all the bounty we take for granted in the US.