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

On December 12 1866 the Lincoln Road Baptist church
was formed by a group of farm labourers meeting in a small
sod house in Lincoln Road, on the southern fringe of Christchurch.
The church grew steadily over the next 30 years, and
in 1881 a church building was constructed on the corner of
Lyttelton Street and Lincoln Road. In 1895 John (J.J.) North
arrived to be the minister, and under his leadership growth was
rapid so that by 1900 there were over 300 worshipping. In addition
during North’s time new churches were commenced by
the church in Hornby and Riccarton, neighbouring suburbs.
After his ministry ended in 1903 the church experienced by
and large a slow and steady decline, with one exception. From
1932 to 1938 a returned missionary Ernest Goring was the
minister, and the church membership grew from 57 to 91, with
35 new members coming in through baptism. 4
By the early 1930s the area of Spreydon, through which
Lyttleton Street passed, was being planned as a large new
housing area. J.K. Archer, a retired Baptist minister and President
of the Canterbury Baptist Association who had served as
Mayor of Christchurch from 1925 to 1931, approached the
Spreydon church about starting a children’s ministry in Lyttleton
Street. It was commenced in 1933 in West Spreydon
School, and in 1936 a church building was opened on land
purchased opposite the school. The Lyttleton Street Baptist
Church was officially formed in 1938. Despite the rapid
growth of the suburb the church never really became strongly
established with membership never getting above the mid thir-
4 As we will see baptism is seen in Baptist churches as the most significant
kind of growth, as it is taken to indicate these people are new Christians.
This assumption as will be developed in this thesis, is open to considerable
debate.
NZJBR 9, Oct. 2004 4