Rev. P.A.C. Peters
December 1959 - May 1964
OUR HISTORY
THE STORY OF OUR CHURCH, HOW IT WAS FOUNDED, AND HOW WE GOT HERE BY GOD’S GRACE
In The Beginning...
On the 4th May 1955, a small group of Baptists with a concern for the developing area of Marchwiel, met together. They were all then members of the Wilson Street Baptist Church in Timaru and were inspired by the need to establish a Sunday School for the children of the rapidly expanding new housing area. This Sunday School was commenced subsequently on the 25th June 1955.
The Sunday School progressed well and plans were soon approved by the Wilson Street Church, under whose supervision the work was being conducted, for the erection of a modest but permanent building. This building was constructed on the present site at 16 Tyne Street and was of such a design that it could be extended easily when the need arose. It was officially opened on the 9th February, 1957.
Very shortly afterwards the Sunday School became a separate entity from the Wilson St Sunday School and at the same time the “Marchwiel Baptist Fellowship” was formed. At first the Fellowship met on a Tuesday evening alternating between bible studies and other activities. Sunday services were begun on the 3rd March, 1957 and a highly successful “Childrens’ Happy Week’ was conducted which lead to the doubling of Sunday School numbers. Space was a problem so plans were made to extend the Sunday School hall to include baptismal font and Sunday school rooms.
As soon as the 4th July 1959 a stone-laying ceremony was held to dedicate the completed church extension to the glory of God in the area. The following day, a Sunday, was the day when 23 people signed a pledge and became the foundation members of the Marchwiel Baptist Church, a church which was warmly welcomed into the Baptist Union of Churches that year at the Assembly meetings.
Ministry Timeline
The following is a chronological list of the men who ministered at Marchwiel from 1959 till the present:
Rev. R.M. Gurney
November 1964 - April 1969
Rev. A.J. Lucas
February 1971 - August 1973
Rev. G. Buckley
November 1973 - June 1976
Mr H.A.F. Wood & Rev P. Millichamp
July 1976 - July 1985
Mr Leslie Redhead
July 1985 - August 1986
Pastor Alfie Orr
August 1986 - November 1998
Pastor John Leevers
December 1998 - October 2006
Mr Grant Phillips
October 2006 - February 2010
Pastor Nick Clevely
February 2010 - Present
MARCHWIEL REFORMED BAPTIST CHURCH (c. February 2004)
SIGNIFICANT MILESTONES
REFORMED BAPTIST
During the 12-year period when Pastor Alfie Orr was ministering, the church came to rejoice in the Doctrines of Grace as summarised in the early Baptist Confessions (e.g. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith) and sought to witness in the Marchwiel area to the greatness of God’s sovereign grace. To reflect this emphasis the church’s name was changed to “Marchwiel Reformed Baptist Church”.
JOINING THE FRBCNZ
On 7 May 2005, while John Leevers was pastor, Marchwiel Reformed Baptist Church became a founding member of the Fellowship of Reformed Baptist Churches of New Zealand.
NAME CHANGE
In November 2015, the church members agreed to change the church’s name from Marchwiel Reformed Baptist Church to Covenant Grace Baptist Church. This was made official in August 2016, when the Charities Commission accepted the change.
MOVE TO NEW BUILDING
On the 11th October 2020, we held the official opening of the newly renovated church building at 20 Archer Street.
This was previously an Exclusive Brethren building, and as such was quite closed in with hardly any natural light. The building was extended towards Rhodes Street as far as practicable, and the internals were completely renovated according to a design concept by Russell Cannons from Construkt (Russell has preached for us a number of times). Lots of windows were added, and the outside of the building was clad in Timaru Bluestone, courtesy of Rene Kempf, who single-handedly managed the building project. A number of people helped with the project, notably local builders Colin Ritchie and Tom Kubala, and local electrician Mike Watt of Sparky Watt Electrical.
The Lord was gracious to allow the three previous pastors (Alfie Orr, John Leevers, and Grant Phillips) to attend and be involved in the commemoration service, which was a great blessing to all who were present. Rene Kempf was asked to cut the ribbon to officially open the building after the morning church service, there was an official photo shoot (see photos below) and morning tea to celebrate.
Current Pastor
Nick Clevely, his wife Lynn, and their boys arrived in Timaru in February 2010, coming from St Helena Island where Nick had previously been ministering. At this time many South African families are immigrating to New Zealand and some have bolstered the Sunday attendance. Also many of the children of the church families have reached their teenage years and are now forming a good core of enthusiastic youth. Nick has an emphasis in his ministry on the gospel and overseas missions, and this is encouraging prayer, giving and support of missionaries.
RECENT PHOTOS
