West Croydon Baptist Church is a healthy and vibrant worshipping community. It is not a traditional community church in that it is situated on a very busy traffic island. However, what has been encouraging in recent years is that there have been various housing developments which has resulted in a tremendous increase in the people population around and nearby to the church.
The people of the church are welcoming, warm and friendly and life within the community is flavoured with grace, love, forgiveness, reconciliation and acceptance. This is a testimony of the work of the Holy Spirit within the community as it seeks to celebrate its multicultural/multigenerational makeup. The church is essentially open to the Holy Spirit and encourages the use of spiritual gifts whilst seeking to promote an atmosphere of openness, moving into the promises of God regarding the miraculous.
WCBC constantly looks for new and fresh ways to reach out with the love of God. It delights in the empowerment of people that they may reach their full potential in Jesus Christ. The church recognises that in order to transition itself to its next stage along the journey, it must develop its structure that as a church of Small Groups it may be best positioned to carry out our Lord's Great Commission.
The Church places a strong emphasis on Team Ministry with leadership and responsibility shared more fully within the fellowship. The Leadership recognises that all members have a valuable contribution to make towards the life of the church.
The current Leadership team consists of one full-time Minister (Team Leader), as well as 10 Deacons. One full-time Minister and a full-time Young People's Minister have recently left.
Deacons are nominated by members and elected for a two-year period. They are eligible to serve for a total of six years before standing down for a minimum of one year.
Elections take place at the Church Members' Meeting in November each year. The Diaconate, following consultation with church members nominates the Secretary to the Diaconate and the Treasurer and the Church Meeting confirms the appointments. Given the special nature of these posts, each may, in exceptional circumstances, be extended beyond the six-year period.
Ordained ministers and staff in Christian leadership are ex-officio members of the Diaconate.
Deacons' meetings are fortnightly, with alternate meetings specifically focussing on prayer and discussion of spiritual progress as opposed to financial and other business matters. All meetings take place in a relaxed and informal manner.
Church members meetings are held after a fellowship lunch bi-monthly on a Sunday afternoon, except August and December. These meetings have the final decision making authority in all matters relating to the affairs of the church, as they seek the will of God through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and under the Lordship of Christ.
The meetings seek to be informal and inclusive in style and content.
Other paid staff include a Church Administrator, Maintenance Man and a Housekeeper and cleaning team all of whom work on a part-time basis.
Rough guide to age groups:-
Under 20 - 10
20 - 40 - 50
40 - 60 - 79
Over 60's - 52
West Croydon Baptist Church is a trans-local church with its membership drawn from across Croydon and surrounding areas.
The congregation is made up of various nationalities (presently 29) - English, African, Asian, West Indian etc. The membership currently stands at 191 and is kept under regular review. In recent times the church has seen a steady movement of members away from the area but also an equal influx of newer members. This has resulted in the membership figures remaining fairly constant over the last five years. Baptismal Services are held regularly.
WCBC benefits from its position of high visibility on a large traffic island in that most Sunday morning services will attract a small handful of visitors. We are told by our visitors that the mixed nature of the worshipping community is a welcoming experience.
Two services are held each Sunday at WCBC; one at 9.15am and the other at 10.45am. Various members of the congregation lead services and all are encouraged to participate, both young and old. Generation Groups (Sunday School) meet at the same time as the 10.45am service, having had approximately 20-25 minutes of worship as a whole community. Attendance at the service varies but on average there are 180-190 worshipping (including children) at the 10.45am service and approximately 30 at the 9.15am service. There is no evening service although at the Leadership's discretion occasional topical teaching sessions, healing service, Youth-led services etc. are arranged.
Worship in the 10.45am service, though structured, is semi-informal, lively and contemporary with elements of the more traditional. The 9.15am service is more traditional whilst allowing for the inclusion of various worship styles. It remains predominantly a more reflective and 'quieter' service.
The Church mainly uses the New International Version of the Bible with copies available in the pews. Music is predominantly from the 'Songs of Fellowship' books 1-3. On a Sunday morning songs/hymns are displayed on a screen using computer/video projector technology.
The Church has a music group, which consists of various instruments from the piano through to guitars, drums, and percussion. Various styles of music are used in worship and a group of singers lead the congregation in singing songs. They predominantly serve in the 10.45am service. The 9.15am service is normally accompanied by the piano. The pipe organ is used only on an occasional basis.
A variety of multi-media resources are used in the services. These include the use of the video with music/video/news clips/DVD's; slide presentations and other interactive resources.
The church believes in a God of miracles and remains open for the Holy Spirit to move among us. The more overt spiritual gifts (tongues, prophesy, healing etc) have not regularly been exercised in open worship, although their existence is acknowledged and expression encouraged.
The Church's prayer life happens on a number of different levels, with intercessory prayer being a regular feature of Sunday worship. There are three prayer ministry co-ordinators, who organises, on a regular basis, events such as prayer breakfasts/teas. There is an opportunity for people to pray in small groups, i.e. triplets. There is also a monthly prayer meeting.
Prayer is encouraged as a normal part of Growth Groups. There is also in place a group of people ready to respond in prayer on a 24/7 basis for any emergencies/crises. A weekly prayer diary is published every Sunday containing concerns from the Fellowship, the wider community and up-to-date national and international situations.
Communion is served at both services on the third Sunday of every month. The Church's custom is to serve the bread and eat together and in a similar manner to serve the wine and drink together. It is also the custom to be inclusive to the housebound and we achieve this by sending out a Deacon and other Church members to each respective housebound person that we may all Fellowship at the Lord's Table at the same time.
Between 1994 and 2000 WCBC benefited greatly from the ministry, imitative and enthusiasm of an Evangelist/Outreach Worker. For most of that period he worked for the Church half time and during that time impacted and influenced the Church in a significant way. The Church saw little growth by conversion but none-the-less, during this period the foundational work of orienteering the Church to become a mission people with a heart for the 'lost' was put in place.
The Church in its strategy to reach out to the un-churched, pursued friendship evangelism and people were encouraged to make non- Christian friends. WCBC developed multimedia style services as we sought to draw in the un-churched through what we called 'Christertainment'.
Multi-media presentation, although enjoyable, was resource intensive. At present such a format for outreach is 'on hold'.
Alongside these events, the Church was encouraged to bring friends and have a good time through what we called 'Go Events' e.g. barn dances, theatre, comedy acts etc. The Church also tried its own version of Alpha which was called Workout, but that proved unsuccessful as an evangelistic tool. Current outreach to the community consists of hospitality to Croydon's homeless during the months of January-March and hospitality for Refugees and Asylum Seekers every Tuesday. We also work together with other local churches as we together reach out into the community (e.g. Fun Days).
In 1996 the Church spent time considering its ministry among the children and youth and heard God say to "Enlarge the Circle". Young people were to be treated with respect and value, as adults were treated. WCBC was to be an inclusive community. Eventually a Mission Statement was adopted "The Children's and Youth Ministry exists to provide a safe, enjoyable environment in which the young people may develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ".
Apart from All Age services which presently occur five times a year, the young people leave the main Sunday morning service in order to continue worship and learning in their respective age groups. These are:
Each Generation Group has its own leader and a team of helpers. Both the Youth Groups (Limitless & TBA) at present also meet mid- week, for a weekly Growth Group "Deeper" and weekly social activities on Friday nights. Also on Friday nights there is a weekly club called 'Space Club' for 7-11 year olds.
This work has been going on for many years and is very successful. It is led by Church members and meets weekly on a Thursday evening.
These groups meet weekly/fortnightly in homes across the Borough, and consist of a maximum of twelve people. There are at present 10 groups. Each Growth Group has a leader and all the leaders meet with the minister and Growth Group Overseer once a year. WCBC is a fairly large Church so these small groups act as a forum where relationships can be developed and intimacy achieved in the worshipping community.
This group although open to all consists of mainly older women and meets weekly on a Thursday afternoon. They invite speakers and have a devotional time as they study the Word. It is also a time to deepen relationships and encourage friendship.
WCBC has 8 designated areas of concern e.g. Tearfund, Home Mission. Each designated area has a representative and is allocated one Sunday annually for the promotion of that particular ministry. All the representatives meet twice a year with the Minister.
This meets on the premises and is serviced by volunteers of which many are older retired members of the Church. The Centre is an independent charitable work founded by a church member and adopted in the Church's vision of care for and in the community. The Day Centre began by providing a hot meal and necessities like clothes, dry foods etc. on a Tuesday. The work has become much more diversified as the Co-ordinator sought to respond to the needs of those who find themselves in a strange land with very little. It is an ecumenical, non-proselytising work that seeks to reach out with the love of God in action.
During the winter months we provide hospitality (food, shelter and friendship) one night of the week. This ministry is carried out together with various other churches in the community, each providing hospitality on a different night of the week.
The church has only recently completed the first phase of its building refurbishment after many years. The vision and aim was to make the building, which has many levels, a more friendly and better communicating place. In 2007 with all the building work completed, Spurgeon Centre was opened. The building now has disabled access, two lifts and is better suited for use by the many community agencies that uses the halls on a regular basis.
West Croydon Baptist Church was founded in 1869. Membership was 28 and its pastor was Dr. James Archer Spurgeon, brother of the famous Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The church experienced tremendous growth in its first 50 years, so by the turn of the century, attendance was 700 members in the morning and 800 in the evening. The growth continued and by the 1920's membership had soared to 1,200, making West Croydon Baptist Church one of the largest Baptist Churches in Britain.
The next 70 years of the church's life was a very different story. The Church experienced massive and continuous decline resulting in a worshipping congregation which was in reality less than the drastically reduced membership of 180. The only interruption to this pattern was a ten-year spell from the mid-fifties when the church benefited from a preacher (Revd. Geoffrey R. King) who had an international ministry,.
WCBC held for most of its life a formally strict etiquette; a light classical style and a well-educated middle class atmosphere. However, this ethos was to become increasingly out of place in contemporary Croydon.
In the early 60's the northern half of the Borough of Croydon experienced the formation of a new black, mainly West Indian community. WCBC, to its credit, endeavoured to respond to this changing situation by calling a returned missionary from Jamaica to pastor the church. This strategy was not without its' problems but the fact that the church today consists of 29 different nationalities is in some part indicative of the progress of the Church's initiative.
It is worth mentioning that the culture of the Church was not specifically changed but the Church did seek to welcome 'others' and that is the foundation upon which it builds today.
In the 1980's the then Ministers endeavoured to move the Church into a more charismatic spirituality and expressive style but were, in the main, unsuccessful either due to a lack of pastoral skills and/or the stubbornness (resistance) of the Church to change. In the 1990's under the leadership of Revd. Roger Standing the Church spent time "Catching the Vision" with the whole fellowship invited to participate, and spend time in study and prayer seeking the Lord for the future. Having heard from God (in and through each other) the Church adopted the vision "To Grow and Go". As part of this process a new logo of a man taking up his cross and heading for the Croydon Skyline was introduced as a visual representation of the vision.
Today the vision for WCBC remains the same but the ethos has changed significantly. The Church is much more informal and contemporary. It is intentionally multi-cultural in its practice and encourages the use of spiritual gifts. The church recognises that because of its size, it functions best using the concept of 'a church of small groups'.
West Croydon Baptist Church (Spurgeon's Tabernacle) is affiliated to the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland and is a member of The East Surrey District of the London Baptist Association, the Evangelical Alliance and Churches Together in the Borough of Croydon.
WCBC is now a legally recognised Registered Charity No. 1128517.