Spreydon Baptist Church 1960-2000 - Knox Centre for Ministry and ...

met at the Somerfield Community Centre under the leadership
of Murray Winn; Addington in the local primary school, led
by John McGowan. In 1985 another two were established
when the Ilam group split into two. The Ilam congregation
under Brian Broom and Howard Taylor met in the Ilam Primary
School, adjacent to the University of Canterbury. With a
number of students beginning to come it soon developed a
focus on ministry to university students. A congregation in the
neighbouring suburb of Upper Riccarton began meeting under
the leadership of Ted Wiggins. The other area groups stopped
meeting and became fully involved at the main congregation at
Spreydon, or ‘mother’, as it was to become known. Two
slightly different congregations were later added. A Community
Centre had been developed under Graeme Reid and a
group had begun meeting to pray and worship together out of
that. Consisting mainly of former patients from the nearby
psychiatric hospital at Sunnyside, it was felt they didn’t fit
well into the style of services in the other congregations so
they began meeting at the Spreydon Church on Tuesday evenings.
With over 100 attending it became one of the church’s
congregations, known as the Community Christian Fellowship.
Then in 1987 Bryndwr Baptist Church, whose membership
had dropped to below 50, asked Spreydon to take oversight
of it, and it also became an area congregation.
Despite the enthusiasm with which the move was greeted
within a couple of years questions were being asked, especially
by Robertson. The move had not led to any great growth
or inflow of new converts. The main congregation at Spreydon
lost a lot of its energy and spark. By the end of 1986 he was
wondering whether the move was ‘imparting a vision of
smallness to people.’ He was concerned to ‘hear people talking
often about feeling ‘comfortable’ in small congregations’
NZJBR 9, Oct. 2004 22