200 Years Of Faithful Preaching
October 23, 2008200 years of God’s faithfulness. That’s what Charlotte Baptist Chapel in Edinburgh celebrates this weekend. What an opportunity! A small corner of God’s ‘big C’ Church has three days to reflect thankfully on their past, resound praise joyfully in the present, and dream ambitiously for God’s glory in the future.
However, when we say 200 years of God’s faithfulness, we would surely submit that one evidence of that faithfulness has been the gift of faithful preachers. Over two centuries, a line of godly and gifted men have (by God’s grace) left behind a legacy of saints equipped, a people prepared for works of service.
Over this next week, I’m going to try to capture something about the preaching of some of these Christ-exalting men:
- Christopher Anderson (1808 – 1851)
- Joseph Kemp (1902- 1915)
- Graham Scroggie (1916 – 1933)
- Sidlow Baxter (1935 – 1953)
- Gerald Griffiths (1954 – 1962)
- Alan Redpath (1963 – 1966)
- Derek Prime (1969 – 1987)
- Peter Grainger (1992 – date)
(ps. this is not an exhaustive list of pastors at Charlotte Chapel. For the complete story, you can read Ian Balfour’s new and comprehensive book, Revival in Rose Street).
Our family has been blessed to be in the Chapel. We praise the Lord for the faithful preaching ministry. Looking forward to this weekend.
Greetings to all at the Chapell on the big double century ( a rarety in cricket!). We were in the chapel 88-92 (in the 20th century!) between Derek Prime and Peter Grainger, and always enjoy coming back to visit. The pulpit in that long vacancy was perhaps the most telling test of preaching in the late 20th century – the good the bad and the ugly. Highlights for me would have been David Jackman, Douglas Macmillan (memorably preaching on the cross the day that R A Finlayson died) Bill Bygroves, and David Smith from Northumbria B.Coll. Low lights – too many to mention, but we reached the right decision in the end! Someone needs to do a dissertation into why big baptist churches have long ‘interregnums’. And the best seat to hear the preacher in the chapel? In the choir seats behind, where we spent happy years being conducted by Donald Cameron. If you can’t listen to a preacher from behind his head, he won’t hold your attention even if you can see the whites of his eyes. Keep at it Colin, and Peter, and all.