CHARLES SPURGEON AND CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
By Ben StrattonFrom 1854 until his death in 1892, Charles Haddon Spurgeon pastored the same Baptist Church in London, England. When Spurgeon was first called as pastor, this congregation was known as the New Park Street Chapel. They soon outgrew these facilities, so a new sanctuary was built and named the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
During Spurgeon's thirty-eight years as pastor, this congregation received 13,797 new members. There are several interesting things about these numbers:
1. Spurgeon received 10,063 new members by baptism. It is impressive that he did not separate baptism from church membership. Every person that was baptized at the New Park Street Chapel / Metropolitan Tabernacle became a member of the church.
2. Spurgeon received 2,764 new members by letter. These individuals transferred their membership from another Baptist church into the New Park Street Chapel / Metropolitan Tabernacle. It was refreshing to learn Spurgeon was careful about this. Members moving into London from a long way off were readily received after examination. However, members wanting to join Spurgeon from a nearby Baptist church were encouraged to go back and serve in their own congregation.
3. Spurgeon received 944 new members upon profession of faith. These individuals had already been saved and scripturally baptized but could not obtain a church letter. There were two reasons for this. Sometimes their home church had disbanded and there was no congregation to send a letter. However, I was fascinated to learn that the majority of the time, it was because the English Strict Baptists refused to grant a letter to Spurgeon's church. This was due to the fact that the Metropolitan Tabernacle practiced open communion. When Spurgeon first went to the New Park Street Chapel the congregation practiced strict communion. Once the new sanctuary was completed in 1861, Spurgeon led the church to move to open communion. At the end of his life, Spurgeon did seem to change his mind and expressed to several American Baptist pastors that strict communion was the more biblical approach.
========================== [Document written by Ben Stratton. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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