Middlesbrough Baptist Got AIPM Started
By: Chuck McCombMiddlesbrough Baptist Church will always have a warm place in the hearts of all of us in AIPM! Had it not been for the step of faith by MBC this ministry would never have come into being. It is a long story, but worth telling for the glory of God! He is always in charge and He is taking very good care of the Bride of Christ and those who serve Him.
MBC “Church Walk” Group
MBC Worship Center
In late 1999, MBC deacon and youth leader, John Rhodes, recommended that MBC invite former member, Chuck McComb, to be interim pastor while they searched for a British Baptist pastor. John had not met Chuck at that time, but had a good report on Chuck and his wife, Pat, from a group of MBC youth that stayed with Chuck and Pat in 1998. The group had come to Houston, Texas for the Baptist World Youth Congress.
John and Pat Rhodes
Chuck and Pat were known to some of the longer-term members of MBC, however. They had worshipped at MBC from 1975 to 1979 while living in Middlesbrough where Chuck worked for Monsanto Chemical Company building a plant in the area. In fact, Chuck and Pat, a British couple, John and Margaret Lewis and a single man, Dave Lancefield ran the youth club for MBC. Dave married their pastor’s daughter, Janet Cargill, but that is another story of the goodness of our God!
Chuck and Pat arrived at MBC in April 2000 and served until September 2000 when MBC called a British Baptist Pastor. That concept has become the standard to which AIPM aspires—to serve a Baptist church in the UK until such time as they can have a British Baptist pastor.