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Church Profile for

Springfield Park Baptist Church

Agreed by the Church Members’ Meeting on…

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Introduction We are a friendly fellowship of around 60 people that meets in Springfield, which is itself a central and historic location within the Essex City of Chelmsford. Having been established many years ago to serve a new and growing community we still retain the DNA of serving those around us whilst learning each day to follow Christ and make him known in our words and deeds. We feel that our strong community links and activities help reflect this but we are always seeking to grow in this regard too. Our previous minister was with us for over 20 years and has recently left

the church. This has therefore created an opportunity to take stock and look forward

to what we feel God is calling us into for the future. We are very excited about the

potential that exists for the church and hope that in reading this profile, you are too!

Our origin story [An excerpt from a newspaper article dated 22.3.1935]

‘Springfield Park Baptist is an offshoot of the Market Road Baptist Church.

When Springfield Park was developed in 1930, the C of E in Trinity Road was not

considered big enough, so a Mr and Mrs West (from Market Road Baptist), started a

Sunday School in their home at Shrublands, Springfield Road. When the couple

moved, the school was transferred to the British School, Trinity Road.

At this time, Mrs Powling offered a room in her house in Queens Road for a women’s

meeting.

By October 1932, the great need of Sunday services and weekday meetings was

felt, and it was decided to rent 43 Springfield Park Road. Here they held services,

and every Sunday afternoon, the Sunday School filled every room.

A building fund was started and a block of land, where our church stands now, was

secured by a Mr W T Whitley.

On 16th March 1935, foundation stones were laid, using the same trowel from the

foundation stone laying at Market Road. This trowel was then presented to Mrs

West.

Rev. W Harold Tebbitt (superintendent of the Eastern area) congratulated the

workers and said they had entered into a great heritage. This was a fresh place of

Baptist work in the town. Baptists, he said, were sometimes called ‘narrow’ people.

Baptists stood for purity, for the Sunday School, for the bible , for Jesus Christ. He

did not think they could be called narrow when they stood as broadly based as the

New Testament. Let them go on with their splendid work.’

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The make-up of the church today As previously stated, the church comprises approximately 60 people who span the

age ranges found in the local community and beyond. We have children, teenagers,

families, couples, single people, retired folk, those who come into the church from

outside the area and those who have lived locally for many, many years. We

represent a number of countries and cultures with people from Nigeria, Ghana,

Zimbabwe, South-Africa, Hong Kong, Philippines, Holland and the UK (to name a

few). We also enjoy seeing return visitor from across the world and as a part of our

broader connections with the body of Christ.

We recently conducted a church questionnaire to find out more about the church membership and their backgrounds and found that people had come from a variety of church experiences –

Whilst recognising that it can be very difficult sometimes to pin down exact theological convictions, we did also attempt to get a sense of where church members might place themselves and this returned some interesting results –

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Another interesting takeaway from this survey was that when asked what people thought the church’s theological stance was, ‘charismatic evangelical’ came very low (under 10%, as opposed to just under 30% saying they might describe themselves as charismatic evangelical) with just under 50% saying open evangelical and just under 40% saying conservative evangelical. Our conclusion from these findings is that there is a breadth of church experience and theological convictions within the church fellowship and that we need a minister who would enjoy embracing this diversity, sometimes giving the different perspectives on how Christians might read the bible, and that a minister with a conservative evangelical leaning might be least happy at the church. Certainly, we rather enjoyed discovering this diversity amongst us and we would appreciate the opportunity to grow in an inclusive way, holding in tension the various ways in which Christians might read the bible, whilst growing as a dynamic and faithful community of Jesus Christ.

How we currently meet to worship We meet at 10.30 am and spend the first half hour or so in all age worship. The

youth and S-Club (Sunday School) then leave to go to their own groups, and the

remaining congregation continue the service.

Communion is shared once a month, occasionally as a family communion.

We have several talented musicians who make up the worship group, and they play

and sing when they are available. The organist can also be called upon to assist in

the weekly worship service, likewise there is a dedicated technical team who

organise set up and audio-visual presentations.

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S-Club has sadly declined in numbers and we currently have 2 regular attendees

and a faithful group of leaders.

In youth, we have 12 regular attendees, mainly the children of church families, a

number of whom have been baptised. We have a youth and community worker who

organises their teaching , which is shared by a loyal group of helpers.

We have a number of talented musicians who make up the worship group, and they

play and sing when they are available. We also have a dedicated technical team

who organise set up and audio visual presentations.

We all share tea, coffee and chats after the service.

During the lockdown we have held an on-line Sunday service at 10.00am, either pre-

recorded or live streamed. We have taken turns to do this, including our youth.

The youth now have an online bible study on Tuesday evenings, and the S-Club

children are catered for by an online (pre-recorded) bible story and craft.

The local community, and how we serve within it ‘Springfield’ as a fictional place has probably been immortalised by The Simpsons in

the minds of many!

However, the parish of Springfield up until the 1950s was a semi-rural village lying

one mile north east of Chelmsford, on the old Roman Road, with perhaps little to

attract the visitor outside of the annual Essex show, a half dozen pubs and the

town's prison and Essex Police headquarters, both of which still lie to the east of the

old Roman road.

Today, Springfield parish is considered a desirable place to live in Chelmsford and

depending on where you do so perhaps even just 15 minutes or less of a walk into

the City centre and all the amenities there. SPBC is indeed also not far from the

centre as well as the local prison, the police headquarters for the county, a major

retail park, and the Chelmer river and the long walks that can be had along it. Local

housing dates to the Victorian era, also Edwardian, mid-century developments, and

even very recent housing.

The local population is a very diverse mix, ranging from young families, commuters,

retired folk, and every mix you could imagine really. Indeed, Springfield today

perhaps reflects the larger, growing population of Chelmsford, with some

‘Chelmsfordians’ having been born and raised in the area, but with many others

moving in because of the attractive job, housing and quality-of-life aspects on offer.

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We serve this local community with some of the following activites:

Wet Your Whistle is a fortnightly drop in, catering mainly to elderly folk. Around 20

– 30 people attend for a cup of tea, bric-a-brac stall and thought for the day, plus

various special events throughout the year.

Thursday Coffee Hub is another drop in, providing tea, coffee and company for

anyone. There is much happening on these mornings – The Springfield Stitchers

knit and sew for charity projects, the Repair Hub mends broken household items,

and lunch of either soup or toasties is provided at midday.

We also collect unwanted tools for Tools With A Mission, and before lockdown, we

were preparing to open a new Foodbank Centre.

Toddler Group meet every term time Tuesday for an hour and a half of play, toast ,

stories and songs. This is usually well attended and busy.

During the week our Springboard Pre School operates from the church hall. We

have a close relationship with the staff, and 4 church members are on the

Management Group Team. We are always invited to participate in special events,

and recently shared the Easter story with the children.

Sat@6: Once a month the youth meet for a games evening. These have previously

included film nights, Jump Street, park games, science evening, survival games and

more. The youth feel comfortable to bring their friends along and much hilarity

ensues.

There are many other events that happen throughout the year, such as firework

night, quizzes, bring and share lunches, community gardening and litter picking,

Easter breakfast, and Foodbank holiday meals.

We are also in the process of setting up the provision of meals with FoodCycle.

We have a good relationship with Holy Trinity Church at the other end of the road,

and often help with Messy church.

SPBC Buildings and Manse The church buildings comprise the older church itself together with a large hall and kitchen. The hall is used every weekday morning by Springboard Pre-school, which maintains very close links to the church through its management committee. Many other community groups use the hall for their activities from Slimming World to exercise classes and from NCT (National Childbirth Trust) classes to 11+ tutoring class.

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The church itself is used by other worship groups with a Tuesday morning prayer group and also by the local Polish community Catholic Church for their Mass. This makes the hall and church buildings valuable community spaces as well as providing an income which helps contribute to the upkeep of the church as well as for the work of ministry in Springfield and beyond. The manse is a large four bedroomed Victorian house about 700 meters from the church. There is off road parking, and a garage.

SPBC Church and car park

Picture of the SPBC Manse

SPBC connections SPBC enjoys being a member of the Churches Together in Chelmsford and of course the Eastern Baptist Association. The ecumenical community in Chelmsford is a friendly one and there are a number of other Baptist Churches too, offering an opportunity for fellowship and support as we seek to impact the city for Christ. We also enjoy a very good relationship with the local Anglican church, Holy Trinity.

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Internationally we have links with our Bapist 'sister church" in Middelkerk in Belgium

and a connection with the Indian Evangelical Mission (IEM).

The City of Chelmsford

Picture of Hylands House in Hylands Park, a popular area open to the public on the outskirts of the city

Chelmsford is a city and the county town of Essex, in the East of England. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately 30 miles (50 kilometres) northeast of the notional centre of London at Charing Cross and approximately 22 miles (35 kilometres) from Colchester. The urban area of the city has a population of approximately 180,000+.

The early history of Chelmsford can be traced back to the original Roman settlement of Caesaromagus (Caesar's market place). The Romans built a fort at the location of modern Chelmsford in 60 AD. The setting proved a convenient halfway point on the road between Londinium (London) and Camulodunum (Colchester) and market town developed there. By the end of the 2nd century AD, Caesaromagus had been fortified and was at its peak. The Roman’s presence in Britain then declined, especially during the 4th century. After they left in 407 AD, Ceasaromagus disappeared. The modern town of Chelmsford did not emerge for almost 800 years after the Romans left Britain. In the early part of the 12th century, Bishop Maurice of London ordered the building of a bridge over the River Can. Later that century, in 1199, Bishop William obtained a royal charter to hold a market near the bridge. This led to merchants settling nearby and this prompted the birth of the modern town.

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On 14 March 2012, Lord President of the Privy Council and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced that Chelmsford was to be granted city status to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The Letters Patent officially granting city status to Chelmsford were received on 6 June 2012. The demonym for a Chelmsford resident is "Chelmsfordian". Today, Chelmsford is considered by many to be a growing, vibrant and safe place with excellent job prospects, education for children, public spaces for leisure, and diverse shopping and eating experiences. Excitingly (for many Chelmsfordians at least!) a John Lewis store was opened in the centre of the city in 2016 as part of a broader retail development called ‘Bond Street’, and even more recently an expansive, new leisure centre has opened.

So, what – or who – are we looking for?

We have already mentioned the diverse theological backgrounds of the church

members and what we feel is the need for a minister who can sympathetically work

with us and guide us forward. In addition, our questionnaire also asked about how

people saw the future of the church, and what they might even want in a minister.

Here is the important feedback on these questions -

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Here we can see that church members felt that the three terms that most described

the church were ‘Caring’, ‘Biblical’ and ‘Supportive’, and that the three things most

important for a healthy church life were ‘good teaching, ‘good pastoral care’ and

‘good fellowship’.

These were values we wanted to see continue and so a blend of pastoring and

teaching in an empathetic way from a prospective minister would be very welcome.

Indeed, respondents to the survey when asked what things they would most like to

see in a new minister replied mostly – ‘Good leadership’, ‘Good teacher / preacher’,

‘able to build good community links’, and ‘pastorally gifted’.

When looking to the future of the church the members felt they wanted to see the

fellowship grow numerically and with greater impact in the community –

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Whether growing from 60 to 120 people or even 120+ the vast majority of the church

would like to see it grow! Perhaps interestingly for a prospective minister, church

members also realised that such growth could come at a cost and that to experience

visionary growth means sometimes sacrificing what makes us comfortable (please

see next page) –

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So, we have a mandate for visionary development, from somebody who can preach /

teach, lead in an empowering way, genuinely cares for people and is warm with

others in the church and the community, and embraces diversity. We are very

excited to find this person, and we hope they are excited when they find us too.

Practical Matters

We intend making this appointment in line with the BU Recommended Terms of

Appointment and will be offering a stipend which is inline with the BU Standard

Stipend, alongside of course offering occupancy of the manse and all standard

expenses.

We will enable and encourage our minister to participate in the Baptist Union’s CMD

programme.