Rev Roger Martin

Rev Roger Martin led the Church into 1975 which was a year of special events, started by the Choir's 80th birthday (a small band of singers had collected together to lead worship and form the first choir in 1895) and followed by the Diamond Jubilee for the Scouts and Girls' Brigade.

In March 1975, Dr Michael Collis resigned as Church Secretary to begin training for the Baptist ministry at Spurgeon's College. (In 1978 he took up his first pastorate at Hertford Baptist Church and while there had Richard Littledale - later to become Minister of TBC - as a student associate.)

1976 saw the death of a grand old man of the Church - Mr William Alexander who had been baptised in the church in March 1913, had been a member for over 60 years, and a Deacon for 50 years. It also saw the Church beat the Scouts at football (soccer) 4-2 in a match with a referee described as 'short-sighted and whistle-happy'!

In 1977, Teddington Baptist Church joined the Evangelical Alliance. The same year, 79 Hampton Road, Teddington was purchased to replace the Wellington Road manse with accommodation closer to the church and able to house the Martin family with its four sons.

TBC Logo 1978 saw the introduction of a new logo (left) for Teddington Baptist Church - this may have been the first time the Church had an official logo.

At the beginning of 1979, Trevor and Stella King began preparations for service with the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS). After a period of training, they went to Nepal under the auspices of the BMS. They worked in the Kathmandu headquarters of the United Mission to Nepal (UMN) from 1980 until 1984.

Changes in worship with the singing of modern songs lead to the production of a TBC song book (Him Praise) in 1979 which was initially used to supplement the Baptist Hymn Book.

Rev Roger Martin left to go to Poynton Baptist Church at the end of 1980 and the Church began its centenary year of 1981 by looking for the Minister of the Lord's choice to lead it into its second century. The highlights of the Centenary Celebrations of 1981 were the Spurgeon's College Mission held in September and the Centenary Musical in December.

TBC Centenary Musical Click for words and music of two songs from our Centenary Musical which was performed by members of the Church in December 1981. Built to Love (2k) | One (6k)

The period without a Minister in 1981 and 1982 saw further changes in the style of worship. Previous ministers had usually preached from the pulpit, but we now found that almost all visiting preachers chose to preach from the lower platform instead.

Rev J Binney

Rev Jim Binney arrived in the autumn of 1982 and immediately began to introduce fresh enthusiasm into the spiritual and worship life of the Church. Banners began to be hung to decorate the church as can be seen in the photograph below of the church ready for morning worship in the mid-1980s. This also shows the overhead projector screen by now used regularly for new worship songs not in any book. The pulpit was hardly used with almost all services being conducted from the platform.

Church building in mid-1980s

Open Door (a mother's and toddlers club) began in 1982 under the leadership of Joan Blyth. In 1983 the morning service was changed from 11 am to 10.30 am to allow the serving of tea and coffee after the services in the Main Hall. This created an opportunity to build deeper friendships and was so successful that coffee and tea was also served after the evening service from the autumn of that year.

TBC Logo A new church logo (left) was introduced in 1983. This logo is based on several Bible passages and summarises the Church's mission - click here to have it explained. "Growing by the river ... for the healing of the nation"

In 1984, Mrs Wyn Herd was called as Associate Minister specialising in counselling and work amongst women - the first time TBC had called a woman Minister. A second manse was needed and 112 Cambridge Road was purchased the same year in time for her arrival.

Mrs W Herd

Peter Jamieson left Spurgeon's College in 1984 (after being supported by the Church through his training). He took up an initial appointment with the Haggai Institute in Atlanta, Georgia but then returned to the UK in 1987 to become the pastor of Broadmead Baptist Church, Woodford Green.

Wyn Herd began to take forward her work among women with a Women's Day Conference in March 1985 which examined the opportunities in that area.

A new Constitution was adopted at the beginning of 1986 which re-introduced Eldership to the Church. John Cant and Ernie Holder were recognised as Elders at the February Church Meeting.

On 29 December 1986 the sanctuary was damaged by a small fire in the ceiling directly over the pulpit (1986 Fire). This led on to a major renovation project in 1988 (see below).

1987 was a difficult year for the Church as it began with cleaning up after the fire and was followed before the year ended by the departure of both Ministers. But there were also positive things happening as when during 1987, the Church sent Chris Baker to be trained for youth leadership at Moorlands. Since 1990 he has been in youth work in Leicester, initially with Youth for Christ.

Modern Music Click for a modern rendition of Shine Jesus Shine (12k midi file) (written in 1987)

The 1988 fire renovations were undertaken mostly with our own labour as most members took one or two weeks leave to work on the project under the supervision of Dave Smith. In this project we modernised the sanctuary - removing the old high pulpit and building a new platform. The pews were also removed, the sanctuary was carpeted and was furnished with more comfortable seating.

Rev W Miles

Rev Bill Miles was called to be out next Minister in September 1988, visiting the church while it was still full of scaffolding. He came as Minister at the beginning 1989 bringing his deep pastoral heart.

A disappointing event in early 1990 was the closure of the Girls' Brigade Company as it came up to its 75th anniversary closed in 1990.

Rev A Willis

But the autumn brought two happier events: First Rev Andrew Willis came as Assistant Minister to Rev Bill Miles in 1990 and then Dave Smith went to Redcliffe College in 1990 to train for missionary service. While there he met and married a nurse from Finland, Halle, who was also studying at Redcliffe College for missionary service. In October 1994, Dave and Halle Smith went with Africa Evangelical Fellowship (AEF) to work in Zambia at Luampa Hospital where they served until returning to Europe in the summer of 1998.

In 1991 the Oversight (Elders and Ministers) put before the Church what became known as the R³ Vision. This was eventually expressed as set out in the box below and it remained the guiding vision for the Church until the middle of 1997.

A local Christian community which is serving the local area without forgetting the wider world; seeking to make disciples in and through all it does; committed, individually and in fellowship, to growing together in
	Renewal Reconciliation Reaching-out

Hampton Baptist Church was established as a separate congregation of Teddington Baptist Church in 1992 under the leadership of Steve Jenkins. The Hampton Church became fully independent of Teddington in 1996.

In another expression of the Church's work with neighbouring Baptist Churches, Steve Langford began work with Hampton Wick Baptist Church which lasted 1992-1997 and included a period as part-time Lay Pastor of that Church.

We were visited by a party of young people from Rostock Baptist Church (the former East Germany) in July 1993. Their visit, and the gift of a ship they left us, reminded us of the courage of Christians in churches like Rostock Baptist Church through over 50 years of persecution under first a Nazi and then a communist regime. The ship also reinforced in our minds the "harbour prophecies" which we received in the period 1988 until 1994.

1994 was a year of mission with Mission 94 in September run jointly with Hampton Baptist Church with a team of students from Spurgeon's College.

Rev Bill Miles brought Alpha to TBC from Holy Trinity Brompton in January 1995. Departures for mission continued as Janet White went to Zambia in 1995 where she worked with Sakeji School.

At the end of 1995, Rev Bill Miles left Teddington to become Minister of Henley-in-Arden Baptist Church. His departure was followed at the end of 1996 by Rev Andrew Willis who moved to Brixham Baptist Church.

1996 and 1997 saw the Goods News go online from Teddington as TBC launched two websites aimed at spreading the gospel in Teddington - and around the world.

TBC Websites
	Teddington Baptist Church Website (launched September 1996)
	Wot? (What's Online for Teddington?) an Internet information service for Teddington and the Hamptons (launched September 1997)

In 1996-97, major renovation works were undertaken under the guidance of Geoff Hawkins including a new kitchen and a new frontage onto Church Road - the railings being taken away to make the church more open and accessible.

Church exterior in 1999

In 1996-98 we had a Frontline Team from Oasis Trust working with us. The team of four young people (Thomas Graf, Chrissie Le Goupillot, Becky Owen, and Paul Unsworth) brought energy and enthusiasm to our work with children and young people during 1996 and 1997. Paul Unsworth stayed on with TBC for a further year into 1998.

Rev Richard Littledale came to the TBC ministry from Purley Baptist Church in September 1997 accompanied by his wife Fiona and their three sons, Joseph, Jonathan, and Luke.

Rev Richard Littledale

Football Double Champions The 1997-98 season was the best season ever for the TBC Soccer Team as it did the double, winning the Southern Area Christian League and the Cup competition in the same season.

An early innovation introduced by Richard Littledale was the gifts survey "Where? What? How?" which was launched in 1998 for completion by all members of the fellowship. Our widening range of evangelistic events in we were trying to attract people into the church buildings and reach out from the buildings to the people of Teddington increased again in June 1998 with the first TBC Summertime Arts Festival.

In September 1998, Richard Colpus joined TBC as full-time Youth Leader. He soon set about developing new activities for young people like "The Alternative" to Halloween and Youth Services in a radically different style.

Mr Richard Colpus
(Youth Leader)

1999 began with another innovation - an outing to the cinema as the Church hired a local cinema for the showing of the commercial animated film 'Prince of Egypt' (the story of Moses) and 130 people attended the Saturday afternoon showing.

Church interior in 1999

The TBC Arts Festival was repeated in June 1999 and again attracted new people onto the church premises as did a Sunday Café in September 1999 which starred the television comedian, Sid Little, talking about his Christian faith. Investment in the premises continued with a £40,000 renewal of our central heating system assisted by a grant of £10,000 from the Hampton Fuel Allotment Society.

We ended the year by working with the other Churches in Teddington to distribute a Gospel of Luke to every home in the area carrying the message that Jesus is the Man of Every Millennium. We also presented a nativity play (The Adult Nativity) in which all the parts were played by adults.

Stable scene from The Adult Nativity

During the year, we sang over three hundred different hymns and songs during our more than one hundred worship services. The one sung most often (on ten separate occasions) was "I will worship" - a fitting emphasis for a significant year in all our lives.

Down to following years