The Move to Brackley:From July 1982, Jim Spivey, also of Regent's Park College, served as pastor. In February 1983, with the lease at the Old Court House soon to expire, Calvary Baptist Church began a building fund. During the next two years the church saved money to purchase an old Anglican Church hall in Bicester. In July 1984, the owners of the Old Court House, the local District Council, asked the church to vacate the premises, which they were preparing to sell. Fourteen years later they were still empty and awaiting renovation. Eventually they were turned into apartments.
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Building 31, RAF Bicester The U.S. Air Force provided temporary accommodation for the Church at Building 31, RAF Bicester. When negotiations for the Bicester Anglican Church Hall proved fruitless, another building search was started in January 1985.
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The Lord guided Calvary to the former British Legion Hall
and Waynflete Social Club in Brackley, which had just become
available. Having saved half the purchase price by the Summer of
1985, the church made a successful bid for the property.
Through the recommendations of the Area Superintendent of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Rev. Geoffrey Reynolds, and Mr. John Barfield of the Baptist Union Corporation Ltd., the Corporation agreed to guarantee the loan which enabled the church's solicitor to close the deal in November 1985. For five months, under the leadership of a core committee, members of the church worked to remodel the building into a functional worship-educational facility for the Lord's service and glory in Brackley. So in April 1986 the Church moved to its present location at Waynflete Close, Brackley. |
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Buildings as a British Legion Club |
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| Later in 1986, John Collier
succeeded Dr. Jim Spivey as pastor.
Without question this present generation owes a great debt of sincere gratitude to Dr. Jim Spivey whose vision provided the church with a great base from which to work within the town of Brackley and surrounding villages. The mortgage on the buildings was finally paid off at the end of 2007. Dr. Spivey, who later went on to become a Brigadier General in the US Army Reserve currently serves as an Academic Dean at a Seminary in Arlington, Texas. |
John Collier, who while in
the U.S. Air Force had served the church as one of the original
Deacons, studied for the Ministry after leaving the U.S.A.F. and
served in Italy before coming to pastor here. After he left in
October 1989 the church was served by two 'interm pastors' Rev.
Doyle Phillips and Rev. Lloyd Ashworth (Lloyd, being a New
Zealander of Welsh extraction, was the first non-American Pastor
of the church).
Rev. Kelly Adkins came to Brackley in the Summer of 1990 from Hayes in Middlesex. Kelly was an American, married to an English wife, who had served a British church. This was felt to be a possible way forward in order to focus the Church's Mission onto the local community, as well as continuing to serve Americans working on RAF Upper Heyford and RAF Croughton. |
In the Summer of 1991 the name of the Church was
changed from "Calvary Baptist Church" to "Brackley
Baptist Church" to reflect this desire to serve the
locality.
In March 1992 Kelly returned to his home in the U.S.A. For the rest of 1992 the Church was honoured to have regular visits from Professors of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, who were on Sabbatical Leave at Cambridge; such as Dr Jim Heflin, Dr Tommy Lea, and Dr Bob Ellis. |
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By the Autumn of 1991 the threat of an imminent base closure (or drawdown) of RAF Upper Heyford was beginning to be seen on the horizon. This was to drastically affect the church, as 93% of its members were American servicemen and women. After several months of informal discussion a Church Conference was held in May 1992 on the ''Future of Brackley Baptist Church''. This was chaired by Dr. Jim Heflin then on Sabbatical from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he was Professor of Preaching. (In 1996 Jim was appointed General Secretary of the European Baptist Convention - later renamed the International Baptist Convention) Although no immediate decisions were made at the conference, the consensus was ''we would hope and pray for an alternative to locking the doors should we lose the majority of our congregation and pray that God would send His man as pastor during this unsettling time''. In November 1992 the Church joined the Oxfordshire and East Gloucestershire Baptist Association, later regrouped as the Southern Counties Baptist Association and the Baptist Union of Great Britain, which had already proved so helpful to the Church in the past, especially in securing the present buildings back in 1986.
The Baptist Union of Great Britain had provided invaluable help to the church during a 'dispute' with the Inland Revenue over Income Tax due from 'visiting Pastors from overseas'. Without the help of the Union's tax advisor Mr. Philip Cooke, the Church may have had to sell the buildings to meet the liability which the Inland Revenue were talking about. In the end, the Inland Revenue settled at the end of 1992 for £250.00! |
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