A country chapel - Peter Seccombe brings news of a growing village church

Herefordshire is a beautiful county, but, like much of rural Britain, one in which thriving evangelical, Bible- teaching churches are few and far between.

Nearly every village and even some hamlets have a parish church, one vicar often being responsible for five or six churches. Few are evangelical. Non-conformist and independent churches are scattered around the county. With some notable exceptions, many are very small with elderly congregations dependent on visiting preachers.

Room too small

Wellington is a lovely village of 200 or so homes about five miles north of the city of Hereford. Nearly 200 years ago a young man, Thomas Day, was sent out by a church in Hereford to assist the vicar of Wellington. Initially he walked there from his home in the city every Sunday, eating his lunch by the roadside.

A few years later the vicar died; Thomas Day found that he had some serious doctrinal disagreements with his successor, so he left the parish church and started a Sunday School class in a room of a local cottage. The room soon became too small and, as he already owned some land in the village, he built a school room. In addition to the growing Sunday School he started a meeting for adults. He served the Lord in the village for 50 years without receiving any financial support. Following his death, his eldest son took over the work which continued to grow. The building had to be extended and people had to arrive half an hour early if they were to be sure of finding a seat at the evening service.

In the middle of the last century the church at Wellington began a Sunday School in a village six miles away, which, in due time, developed into an evangelical church. By 2004, however, the congregation at Wellington had dwindled to a handful of faithful but elderly people. They met in a portacabin, the chapel having become unusable because of dry rot. The future for the chapel appeared bleak.

God’s remarkable work

But over the last four years God has done a remarkable work. A young Christian couple had moved recently to a nearby village. They were keen that that there should be somewhere to which their own children could invite their school friends and where they would be taught the gospel.

They decided they should explore the possibility of joining the small group of believers in Wellington and starting a children’s work there. They were welcomed with open arms and children from the village started coming. The older folk who had kept the work going for years graciously asked them to assume other responsibilities in the chapel. A young Christian family living almost opposite the chapel and another couple with many years of experience in Christian ministry decided that they too should become involved.

Paul Kosciecha, just finishing three years as assistant pastor at Leominster Baptist Church, was invited to become pastor and, under his faithful teaching of God’s Word Sunday by Sunday, the morning congregation grew to around 40 people, including a dozen or so children. The members agreed to join the FIEC. During this time also the chapel was renovated and brought back into use.

Consecutive Bible teaching

Last summer Paul was called to serve a church in South Wales. The congregation was eager to maintain a consecutive Bible teaching ministry and approached Peter Seccombe, who had moved to the area five years previously after a long pastorate in St. Albans, to see if he would be willing to serve as an interim pastor while they looked for a longer-term replacement.

Extension needed

The children’s work now draws 30 or more children on a Friday evening and a good number come to the Sunday morning service and Sunday School. An extension is urgently needed to accommodate this work and to provide acceptable toilets, an adequate kitchen, a car park (the chapel is on the narrow main street of the village) and improved access. The chapel has two acres of ground but most of it is now designated as flood plain. Currently there is planning for two houses and the sale of these two plots, in spite of the drop in land prices, would go some way to funding the necessary work. However, if a substantial start is not made on this project over the next 18 months, the planning permission will lapse and is unlikely to be renewed.

Fragile

Like all small churches (and, in truth, large ones as well!) the church in Wellington is fragile. Humanly speaking it could so easily wither away and die. More important than the building extension is the addition of believers who will share the burdens of the work. But its members, together with other believers who have begun to join with them, are convinced that the God who has maintained this testimony to his gospel for nearly 200 years and breathed new life into it in recent times, will provide all that is necessary for its continuance.

They are praying that he will graciously bring people in the village and surrounding area to saving faith in the Lord Jesus and build up believers in understanding and godliness.

Countryside needs

Evangelical strategists, no doubt rightly, have identified large centres of population as priorities for the building up and planting of gospel churches. Many pastors are, understandably, drawn to the opportunities and needs represented by such situations. But people in the countryside need the gospel too! There are doubtless countless villages and hamlets that have not been evangelised for years. Not everybody can travel miles into a town to a good church even if they have the desire to do so. If small rural churches are to grow and to reach out with the gospel they need pastoral care, godly leadership and good Bible teaching.

God can do great things

Doubtless there are times when it is wise and right for very small churches to close, especially when there are other evangelical churches within easy travelling distance. And it is undeniably costly, and not always right, for families with children to throw in their lot with a very small and elderly congregation. But actually that is what is needed! And the recent experience of Wellington Chapel is a reminder that the Lord of heaven can do great things in small places through a few prayerful people and the preaching of his Word. It illustrates some of the things EN’s editor says in his excellent book The Big Picture for Small Churches (Evangelical Press).

For further information about Wellington Chapel, see http://www.wellingtonec.org.uk