About Us
We are a living, loving, learning community with Jesus at the heart.
What Makes Us Tick
We are a living, loving, learning community with Jesus at the heart. As a church, we aspire to be a place that enables everyone in the community to encounter God’s heart and experience the full life that God always intended for humanity. As people encounter God’s heart for them and the amazing community that we live in, we believe that they begin to thrive, to feel welcomed, find healing, experience freedom, and to continue to learn.
The community that we live in is extremely important to us and believe wholeheartedly that God’s Kingdom (the place where we acknowledge God as the only one who can truly make a lasting difference), transforms communities and the people in them so that they can truly experience a full life. A worshipping community that only meets once a week at a weekly service is not going to see this happen, so we decided to try to immerse ourselves in the life of the community and discover the many places and ways in which God’s Spirit is already at work and then join Him in that work.
You will see from this site that we run a Food Stop and a Clothes Stop, we offer practical support and debt counselling. We know that many in our community are finding things hard at the moment and are committed to supporting anyone in any way that we can because we think that this is what Jesus would do.
We don’t do things the way that most churches do them because we think that as society changes, so must the church. The Good News of Jesus remains the same but form of the church needs to change to speak this life changing Good news into society.
Weekly Activities
Monday
9.30-11 – Coffee Shop Small Group
1pm – WhatsApp Prayer Call (please contact the office if you wish to be added to this call)
Tuesday
(from 26/4) 9.30-12 Clothes Stop
(clothing, books, pre-school stay and play and tea and toast)
2-3pm Fortnightly Home Group (please contact the office for dates and venue)
7.30 – home group
Wednesday
10.45 – 12pm – Coffee Wednesday
Thursday
2.30-4 – Food Stop preparations
6.30 – 8 – Weekly church gathering
Friday
9am-12pm Food Stop
Upcoming Events
Meet the Team
The Church Leadership Team
Nick is supported by an amazing team of church leaders who make sure all the runnings of Old Lodge Lane Church are smooth and everyone is welcome at this amazing church.
Louise Graves
Daves Lewis
Kathy Lewis
Richard Miller
Anne Miller
Our Story This Far
Old Lodge Lane Baptist Church was officially opened in July 1959 but the OLLBC story begins back in 1949 when Mr. Vernon and Mrs. Connie Vail, members of Purley Baptist Church in Banstead Road, started a Sunday School in their home for children in and around Old Lodge Lane. As the 1950s progressed the school grew to the point where there was hardly enough room for all the children.
Then Surrey County Council offered a site to any church prepared to develop it, and Purley Baptist Church gladly accepted. A simple but attractive building was erected at a total cost of about £9,000. As was fitting, Connie Vail performed the opening ceremony in July 1959, and in February 1960 the Rev. David Kingdon was officially appointed the church’s first pastor.
David left in 1964 and was followed in by Geoffrey Richards who was ordained in July 1965 and continued here until February 1967. During his ministry, the buildings were extended with the addition in 1964 of a new prefabricated hall.
During 1960s Old Lodge Lane became increasingly autonomous. The first move came in 1961 when four deacons were appointed with special responsibility for business affairs. The process was to continue in 1968 when the Purley Baptist membership list was divided between the churches and the members at the Lane assumed responsibility for virtually all matters affecting their work.
However, the leadership at Old Lodge Lane continued to change frequently. Geoff Richards was succeeded by Rev. A.J. Sleeman followed by two members of Purley Baptist who were deputed to lead the work at Old Lodge Lane until 1969 when Rev. John Pearse became pastor.
In 1971 another newly ordained minister, Rev John Maile, was inducted where he stayed until late 1974. Rev Bill Mumby, one of the ministry team at Purley Baptist, was given responsibility for Old Lodge Lane in September 1975 where he spent the next 13 years.
The church continued to reach out to the local community and with the youth groups, playschool, children’s choir, and many more, it became increasingly difficult to accommodate all the activities going on. So, a new hall and kitchen were added in the early 1980s the price tag was £51,000, nearly six times the cost of the original building.
In September 1992 Stephen Harrison, another newly ordained minister, was inducted. He developed the community outreach activities which have always been a feature of Old Lodge Lane Baptist Church and oversaw further building works in 1996.
1999 saw Rev Harrison moving to Watford and also the 40th-anniversary celebration on 11th July. The service was led by Rev David Murray, who shortly thereafter was to become the next full-time pastor.
David was here until 2005 and was succeeded by Rev Nigel Jones as Moderator, assisted by a team of deacons.
Then in 2010 our current Pastor, Nick Graves, was appointed. Nick has enthusiastically accepted the challenge and continues to lead the way in taking the message of Christ’s gospel of love to the local community.
Office:
Reedham Park Ave, Purley
CR8 4BQ, England
Old Lodge Lane Baptist Church
Reedham Park Ave, Purley
CR8 4BQ, England