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If a "day to the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day", what is a mere fifty years?
In 1990 Colchester Road Baptist Church celebrated the 50 years since, through the faithfulness of God's people, a work for God was established in this area of Ipswich. The story of a group of people dedicated to God, who are the beginning of a Christian witness that develops through the year, is always a thrilling one.
This is an attempt at the story of one small part of God's work and what has happened since it began in 1940. Very few people have been named - no appreciation of any individual could ever be adequate, humanly speaking, and no list ever complete. It is only an attempt at the story because, inevitable, with so many people involved through the years, and the varying memories of us all, there will be incidents missed. But the wonder of God's purpose is that, in building a work to His glory, God our Father knows all that His people have contributed in His service through the years and, to Him, each individual is unique.
During the 1930s, many new houses were built to the north of Ipswich. On the corner of Colchester Road and Sidegate Lane West there were shops amongst the houses, and it was in one of these shops, then empty, that a Sunday School started in 1936. Mr E Goodchild, who at that time was treasurer and Sunday school superintendent of Nansen Road Baptist Church, had the vision for this work and by 1937, a Sunday Evening service was also being held in the shop.
By 1938 there were about 70 children in the Sunday School and an increasing number at the evening services. Mr Goodchild was the owner of some of the land in the district and, in 1938, he gave the site next to the shops for the building of a church.
The new venture was supported prayerfully and financially by the Baptist Forward Movement Committee, and by the churches of the Suffolk Baptist Union. A gift of £600 was given by the Baptist Forward Movement, other churches and individuals gave generously, and work began on a building which was expected to be the Sunday School Room of the future. The larger proportion of the land, which opened on to Colchester Road, was reserved for the hoped-for larger building.
The new building, which seated about 100 people, and was then called the School Chapel, faced Sidegate Lane West. Now known as the Old Church, it was opened on 10th July 1940 at a cost of £1,200, with no debt. This was a great cause for rejoicing and praising God.
In January 1941, 26 people were received into membership and Colchester Road Baptist Church was established. In October 1942 a retired minister, the Rev A G Mann, became its first minister for a year, and a diaconate was formed, consisting of six men and two ladies.
In this year of ministry, four were received into church membership and one new convert was baptised. In 1944 Mr R A Godfrey was appointed Moderator, during which time three new members were added. In 1946 the church was grouped with Burlington under the leadership of the Rev O D Wiles. Mrs Wiles shared the preaching ministry with her husband, and five more members were added to the church roll. On 1st April 1948, the Rev S M Morris of Turret Green Baptist Church undertook the pastoral oversight of the church. On 5th September 1948, Mr P C Roworth, who had been a boy in Mr Goodchild's Sunday School class at Nansen Road, became assistant lay pastor, and in 1949 Mr Roworth became lay pastor for three years. During this time the work began to grow - 48 people became members and 35 committed their lives to Christ and were baptised.
In 1952 Arthur Caiger of the Childrens Special Service Mission (CSSM) conducted an outreach mission which was well attended, and many people committed their lives to Christ. The church was growing and Pastor Roworth was preparing the way for the call by God and the church of a full-time minister. The people came together in prayer and gradually they were led to give a unanimous call to the Rev Leslie Drew, then minister at a church at Stoke Newington, London, who accepted the call to be the first full-time minister at Colchester Road Baptist Church.
Rev Leslie Drew was inducted to the church on 29th September 1956, and he and his wife, Nadine, began a 4-year ministry, later extended for a further 3 years until 1963. During their time in Ipswich they had their first child - a son, Steven - and a daughter, Sarah,
Leslie Drew's main emphasis was on evangelism, with evangelical services every Sunday evening, at which many were converted and baptised, so that the membership grew. Open-air services were held as a witness to the neighbourhood. There were several missions in the church; on two occasions teams of young people from the London Bible College trekked to Ipswich and did door-to-door visitation. There was an inter-church mission that deepened the spiritual life of the church, led by the Rev Cyril Chivers. In the early sixties there was an evangelistic mission led by the Welsh evangelist, David Sheppard.
The Sunday School had grown and Sunday School anniversaries in particular became such large gatherings that, because of inadequate church premises, the services were held at Northgate School Hall. Leslie Drew left it important for the fellowship to know each other well and, to this end, he organised a church holiday week to Poole, Dorset. Other memorable occasions of fellowship were Sunday School outings to a farm at Witnesham.
As far as buildings were concerned, a highlight of Leslie Drew's leadership was the building of a new hall now referred to as the Primary Room. This hall was designed by one of the deacons, Mr A R Mildenhall, and was opened free of debt on 21st May 1960.
In 1963 Leslie Drew felt his sphere of service at Colchester Road was drawing to a close, and he accepted a call to Broadmead Baptist Church, Woodford Green, north London. He left a church with a membership of 70 (the highest it had ever been) and 49 were baptised in his 7-year pastorate.