Rising From a Glorious Past
Roger Standing
"You took a big risk," somebody told me. But it would have been a greater risk to do nothing.
—Roger Standing Descending the steps from the platform, I sighed in relief. My first Sunday as the heir to a portion of history was over. As I made my way to the door, I again took in my new surroundings. The imposing Victorian preaching house, the three-quarter gallery, the labyrinth of narrow corridors and stone stairwells were daunting. Beyond all that, the 125 years of accumulated evangelical witness was intimidating. Many denominational worthies had preceded me as pastor. Not the least of my spiritual ancestors was the founder of the church, James Archer Spurgeon, whose china bust looked on stoically while I prayed before the service with church leaders. James Archer was also associate pastor at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, pastored by his more famous brother, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. My first weekend as Spurgeon's heir had been hectic. A welcome service the previous day (complete with a busload of friends from our former church), our homesick young children, and a full slate of Sunday preaching activities made me eager to get home so I could enjoy a cup of tea. At the door I said farewell to the last worshiper and then stepped back into the sanctuary. What would the future hold? I wondered. I had no ideas, no schemes, no ten-point plan for growth in a downtown church. I knew God had called me to this place, but the inexorable decline in numbers for the past seventy years had left the church a shadow of its former self. The last upsurge had been in the 1950s under the ministry of a pulpit giant whose preaching had begun to fill the gallery again. But those days were gone. The area around the church had changed as well. Large-scale ...
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