A new pastor is bringing encouragement to a beleaguered Grace Baptist Church. Jim Sayers writes:
As a church, Grace Baptist Church Epsom can attest to being in what seems like bleak days. Being a small church with a declining membership and no pastor was difficult. And after the church closed due to lockdown, some feared the doors would not open again. But God had other plans.
John Frey was put in contact with GBC Epsom through a pastor friend in north London. John had been serving for two years as an assistant church planter in Swindon. After hearing about the church in Epsom, he reached out to them and over the months of lockdown helped provide preaching virtually, along with other local churches who graciously offered to help. By July 2020, GBC Epsom asked John to come and serve as their pastor, and in October that year he and his family made the move. Even though there were moments of doubt about the future, God used the faithfulness of His people in Grace Baptist Epsom, other local churches, and the provision of pastoral leadership, to enable the church to reopen their doors in December.
Discouragement was a very real struggle in the months that followed, but God proved again that He is working even when we cannot see it. Since then, a regular church attender came forward for baptism, and in August 2021 the baptistry was used for the first time in many years! There is also a seminar for those who have expressed an interest in joining the church family in membership. Plans are also being made for regular outreach in the community and opportunities for sharing the good news of Jesus. John’s prayer for the church is that ‘we would continue to grow together in our love and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the beauty and awe of who He is, and how He loves us, overflow from our hearts and spill out into our community. May we be bold with the gospel and may we see its fruit bring life and peace all over Epsom.’
