When I became minister of Pontefract Congregational Church in 1968 it was a typical mid-20th Century liberal denominational church, near to closure. Pontefract had a reputation for being spiritually ‘hard’ and was almost without gospel witness. All attempts by other churches in Yorkshire to plant a gospel work in the town had failed.
From the beginning it was clear that God had gone before us to prepare the way. Christians in the surrounding area had been praying for Pontefract for years and holding open-air meetings there. Some years earlier a couple had felt constrained by the Lord to move to Pontefract from Doncaster and pray until God established a work here.
At that time also, through a number of remarkable providences, key people were brought together to reclaim the church for the gospel and to create a team to evangelise the community.
Even my training at a liberal theological college had some benefit! We met with some fierce opposition to our evangelical convictions, both from within the church and from other ministers in the town. But knowing first-hand how sterile and powerless liberalism is, we were not intimidated.
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