Ten Years On

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Sat, 19/04/2025 - 00:00

This month has marked the tenth anniversary of my pastorate at Salem Chapel. According to the chapel’s online history page, I was appointed pastor the first Sunday in April, 2015, rather than the Easter Sunday which I had thought. Much has changed since then.

The country has changed. The morals have sunk lower, the wider ‘church’ become more apostate and the twin foes of godless wokeism and false religion are more widespread. A dark, auhoritarian streak has appeared in government, forbidding prayer around abortion clinics and threatening jail time for the ill-defined use of 'conversion therapy'.

Salem Chapel has changed. We are a larger congregation, though I note that the number of people who have come and found Jesus Christ among us are few. We no longer depend on ‘spring efforts’ and fundraising which had been the custom since 1917; at the same time, we support more ministries and individuals than we had done before. There are more services and mid-week meetings but we do not, I trust, meet for its own sake.

I, too, have changed. I am fatter, greyer and balder; I should like to say that commensurately, I am wiser, godlier and sager, though I have my doubts. I look back at some of the mistakes I have made; sometimes I was too harsh, sometimes too lenient; on some issues, I was dogmatic and on others too free. I also reflect with gratitute on some of the wonderful people who joined the church over the past ten years- and some of the dubious characters whose backs I was pleased to see. To begin with, I was unpaid, and a full time Head of Sixth Form at a local grammar. Now, my school days are over and I concentrate on God's call, teaching His word rather than a syllabus or exam specification.

Of the current membership, only four were present at the Church Meeting in October, 2014, when I was called to replace Pastor Isaacs who had decided to retire. Those four persons may or may not recall the letter I wrote accepting the call back in '14. I said I would be pastor until someone better could be found. Twice in the past ten years did I think that I might have identified such a one, but nothing came of it. So I am still here and seek to serve the Saviour in our little chapel atop Newby Hill. And may I so remain until such time as someone better is found, the Lord returns, or He calls me home.