At the age of 20, Charles Spurgeon came to New Park Street Chapel from his first pastorate at a small Baptist church in Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire. This congregation had continuously met since 1650, beginning in the Tower Bridge area and continuing in the proximity until they built the church at New Park Street in 1833—at the rear of the Borough Market.
The New Park Street Chapel was a Reformed Baptist church in Southwark in London built in 1833. The fellowship began worshipping together in 1650. Its first pastor was William Rider, and many notable others have filled the position since, including Benjamin Keach, Dr. John Gill, Dr. John Rippon, and C. H. Spurgeon. In 1861, the church moved to Elephant and Castle and was renamed Metropolitan Tabernacle.
In April 1854, after preaching three months on probation and just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 19 years old, was called to the pastorate of London’s famed New Park Street Chapel in Southwark (formerly pastored by the Particular Baptists Benjamin Keach, and theologian John Gill). This was the largest Baptist congregation in London at the time, although it had dwindled in numbers for several years. Spurgeon found friends in London among his fellow pastors, such as William Garrett Lewis of Westballs Grove Church, an older man who along with Spurgeon went on to found the London Baptist Association.
Tennessee Baptist
Sat, Nov 29, 1856 ·Page 1
