A new church

In 1950, with the move to the inner suburb of Mount Eden came a shift to the Epsom Baptist Church. This had been founded in 1904 in what was then the Borough of Epsom, a long, thin strip on the western side of Manukau Road, in 1950 five minutes’ drive from our home in Grange Road. This meant we avoided or by-passed the church at Valley Road, on the corner of Mount Eden Road, and the one at the bottom of Grange Road as well. 

I later realised that my parents had chosen the most “liberal” (from a theological and social attitude point of view) of the churches in that part of Auckland. 

Epsom was in 1950 a smallish congregation, with few younger people. We entered enthusiastically into Sunday School and Bible Class activities and all the associated church life. 

I was asked to take a turn on the old but effective pedal organ at church, and for a time was the main organist. We always had a pianist as well, and sometimes I accompanied another organist on the piano. 

I also later was asked to lead a Bible Class for younger boys, and did so for a year or so before leaving for Hamilton. 

At the same time I attended Auckland District Young Men’s Bible Class Union meetings to represent our church, and soon found myself doing the work of secretary of the Union. My parents and aunt had all been involved in these committee roles  years before, so there were role-models and mentors close at hand. In 1954 I was the secretary for the Easter camp, the first time such camps had been held jointly with the young women.

In all these ways, the experience of church life was training me for leadership, under careful guidance, and I regard this as one of the very positive contributions that well-run churches make to our society: the training of good leaders. While the schools did a similar job, the experience and supervised on-the-job training I got from my church involvement was more practical. I imagine that an experience of Scouts or Guides or any other community or sporting organisation would be similar.

At Auckland University I attended the lunchtime meetings of the Evangelical Union, and from 1952 was a member of the Committee. I attended an IVF Conference one year as part of the Auckland University delegation (see photo). Some time in 1953 Prof Blakelock asked me to consider standing as President of the EU, but I decided my commitments to Bible Class Union and local church took precedence. 

However, this and the experience of working together with the Student Christan Movement committee on a mission to the University in or near 1952 (Canon Bryan Green), widened my blinkered vision to include other churches than Baptist ones. Not that I seriously looked at the other denominations; but I realised slowly that there was not much difference between the people I knew from the Baptist Church and those I worked with or socialised with whose church practices were unfamiliar to me.