History

The history of CBC can be traced back to 1948 when Mr G. Taylor invited some members of the Cronulla Baptist Church (then under the direction of Rev. Rex Glasby) to begin a Sunday School – meeting in a shed on his poultry farm in Lilli Pilli Point Rd, Caringbah. Ted Allison was the principle labourer in this venture. Ted, with the support of his wife Betty, then worked tirelessly through the inauguration of the church and for some decades as a Sunday school teacher, youth director, Christian Endeavour leader, open air speaker and later, an elder in the church.

In 1952, the first church building was erected by some local volunteers who later became the founding members of CBC. The initial church building was a twenty by forty foot hall in South Port Hacking Rd, Caringbah. The Sunday school continued its (already established) ministry and Cronulla Baptist began a Sunday night outreach service in the hall. Towards the end of 1953, procedings began which led to the founding of the Caringbah Baptist Church in February of 1954. Of the 43 founding members, 38 were transfers from Cronulla Baptist as part of the church plant. The attendance of CBC tripled in the first seven years, in no small part due to the high number of births in the membership. The Sunday school grew corresponsingly. During the first decade, the church hall was enlarged three times. But this was still inadequate for the Sunday School, which overflowed into the grounds of the church, the backyards of neighbours and the cars of members who were inside the building attending the morning service.

In the early years, Morling Bible College sent a succession of student Pastors to minister. In February 1995, Ivan Kiilvert was the first full-time student pastor. Alongside Ivan was the first leadership team: Jack Hubbard, John Beach, Joe Morsillo, Esmay Kilvert, Ted Allison, Stan Werry, Perce Clisdell & Max Yarrow. Three years later, in March 1958, Ivan Kilvert moved to North Canberra Baptist Church and Rev. P. J. Hayes was called as CBC’s first ordained pastor. Rev. Hayes had a reputation as a fiery Irish evangelist, but to those under his care he became a strong, loving father figure. During P. J. Hayes’ tenure, a large group of men met regularly and began travelling to country churches for evangelistic outreach weekends. A manse was purchased at this time in Cook Street.

Due to the high growth, it was decided to purchase land on the Kingsway – closer to the town centre of Caringbah. The land was bought for 2,750 pounds. In April 1960, the first building on the Kingsway site was completed and officially opened. The original hall in Port Hacking road was retained as a youth centre and Sunday school met in both locations. The number of children in Sunday School reached 430 and some 60 teachers were required. Formal Sunday School examinations were part of the Sunday School program. Christian Endeavour and Sunday Beach missions at Cronulla beach were also a large part of the church’s activities. The manse in Cook street was sold and another purchased on the Kingsway, near the new church property.

In 1960 a monthly ladies meeting was started by the memebrs of the Ladies Guild, which had be in existance from the earliest days of the church. Shortly there were over one hundred women attending meetings in the homes of others (and later in the church hall). These were know as the “homemakers”. Organising these events were Heather Yarrow, Etta Werry and Elvie Coleman.

In 1961 both the Boys Brigade and the Girls Brigade commenced. Each continued strongly and were the top brigades in the state of NSW on several occassions. The leadership of the Boys Brigade included Bill Gatherer, Bill Payne, John Beach, Ron Hansen and later, Steve Druce, Steve Nosworthy and Neil Swane. The leadership of the Girls Brigade inlcuded Aileen Payne, Yo Winson, Norma Hansen, Fay Wilkinson and Gwen Gatherer. Lynn Bell (formerly Gowman) was Captain of the Girls Brigade for over 15 years and still retains a leadership role in the current Girls Brigade.

As well as the Brigades, the church presented teams in the local soccer, cricket and netball competitions.

On the minstry front, the church held regular Wednesday evening prayer meetings and weekly bible studies. The church held Missionary conventions and encouraged active participation in world mission. A number of the membership responded to the call to Bible college training and/or full-time mission work. These inlcuded Robyn Clisdell, Kay Johnson, Bruce & Nareen Burrows, Sid & Merle Quick, Rodney & Ailsa Davies, Chester & Lyn Street (later in 1972 missionaries in North Western Australia) , George & Jessie Chamberlain (our first overseas missionaries, who began in the Philippines in 1968), Nigel Chamberlain, Alison Watson (New Guinea in 1973-74) and Sue Dykes (1977). In 1994 CBC sent out Ian & Allison Woolley to serve in Austria

In 1964 CBC tool part in the Missouri crusade led by Gene Jeffries. The church also held open-air meetings before each Sunday evening service at the corner of the Kingsway and Denman Avenue near the railway station. Ted Allison, Harold Waddington, Don Wellings and John Gollan handed out tracts and preached to passers- by whilst Jill Yarrow played the piano accordian to accompany the singing.

In February 1969 Rev. P. J. Hayes retired and was succeeded by Pastor Keith Watson, who served for eight years. In November 1970, the new building and sactuary were opened. The membership at this time was about two hundred. During the 1970′s both the senior and junior chiors developed under the direction of Ken Amy and Kim Blinman (now Forsyth). Jill Hubbard took on the youth choir, which toured other churches and performed on Christian outreaches. The youth choir ran from the early 1970′s into the mid 1980′s. In 1986, the youth and senior choirs combined and continues to perform for special events (eg, the Christmas musicals) to date.

The Youth minstry grew from the Sunday School graduates and had Saturday night events consisting of a rotating program of Baptist Youth Fellowship (BYF), missionary night, Bible study and socials.

In 1977, Keith Watson accepted a call from Ryde Baptist Church. From 1978 to 1984, Rev. Walter Schubert was the Senior Pastor. A more suitable manse was purchased in Mimulus Place. During the minstry time of Wally (as he was affectionately known), many displaced Malaysian and Indonesian refugees came to Australia to live. CBC began a program of sponsoring and resettling refugee families. Over one hundred people were helped directly in this ministry, which saw many come to faith. Key workers in this ministry were Francis Hearn, Helen Sampson, George & Faye Wilkinson, Joe & Susan Djoeandy, Dr Peter Chia and Ted Allison. In 1984 Walter, who had previously been a missionary in Bangladesh, returned to the mission field and was promoted to glory in 1987.

Max Yarrow (one of the longest serving members) was part of ten out of twelve mission work parties sent out from CBC to assist in building work for mission needs such as hospitals. These included trips to New Guinea (five times), Irian Jaya, Bangladesh, Zambia, Thailand, Darwin and other Northern Territory locations and Alice Springs.

The Youth centre in Port Hacking Rd was sold so three busses were bought to faciltate the Sunday School ministry which was now completely located at the main church property on the Kingsway.

During the leadership of Walter Schubert, Ross Forsyth was appointed as Pastor for Education and Geoff Slade employed as a full-time Youth Pastor. Among other things, Ross commenced the Bethel Course of studies in numerous small groups. This was a two-year course covering both Old and New Testaments. The Youth group grew very large and eventually left to found a church of their own. Ted McDonald was employed by the church also for Pastoral Care.

After Walter Shubert, Pastor Neville Anderson and his wife, Marion came to minster at CBC, firstly part-time and then full-time for short period. The membership of CBC was then 260.

In the interim following Neville Anderson, the church was care-taken by part-time ministers, Paul De Platter, Ted McCarthy and David Jones respectively. At various stages during this period, the associate pastors, Ross Forsyth, Geoff Slade and Ted McDonald, moved on to other callings.

In 1988 Rev. Bill Storrie (accompanied by his wife, Christine) was appointed as Senior Pastor. Scott Higgins had grown up in the church and was attending Morling Bible College when he was appointed as Youth Pastor. Bill was CBC’s youngest pastor and consequently had a significant impact on young families. In 1990, Rev. Storrie returned to Newcastle to minster and Scott Higgins held leadership until Tibor Mokany became the Senior Pastor in 1992. Tibor and his wife, Joan were trained cousellors and had a significant minstry in the community with special needs people. Tibor led the church in a fresh look at contemporary issues such as social justice and introduced seeker-sensitive services.

in 1993 Jan Cargill joined the team with responsibility for treasury. In 1995 Jan became the Church Adminstrator, a role she continues in a lay capacity to this day.

Scott Higgins accepted a call to Edgeworth Baptist as Senior Pastor in 1995 and was replaced by Jonathan Shanks as Youth Pastor. In 1996 Dal Hartman came as part-time Senior Pastor and was appointed full-time in mid 1997. Shortly after that there was a very difficult period in the history of CBC where Pastor Hartman, along with several dozen members left the church after disagreement on certain theological positions. Following Dal’s departure, Jonathan Shanks was appointed Senior Pastor at the age of 27. At this time the church membership had declined to some 50 people. Furthermore, the church property at the Kingsway was in need of significant repair and remodelling to suit more modern styles of ministry. After much consideration and no suitable options, the church began a period of prayer and fasting to to call on the name of the Lord for direction and provision. Soon after, the church was approached by a developer with an offer to buy the whole property (including the co-located manse and two other houses). An old home elsewhere was purchased and the house demolished and replaced by volunteer labour – this was the new manse. For a short period, CBC operated out of a local Primary School until an old dilapidated but large furniture factory on Captain Cook Drive was purchased to become the new church building. Many of the church people, under the direction of John hubbard contributed vast amounts of time and energy over the next two years to renovate the factory with the remaining funds from the sale of the Kingsway property. A great deal of the materials were found or donated by resourceful members, or just supplied in remarkable ways only attributable to the gracious hand of God. For much of the renovation period, the small church held services in a room at the front of the building where the offices of the furniture factory used to reside – this is now the conference room.

The back corner of the building was a seperate factory altogether and has remained commercially leased to a manufacturing company in order to provide income for the church. The worship centre and office spaces occupy approximately the front 40% of the building. The remainder of the back section of the factory had been turned into a community sports centre which, although required many hours of diligent work to both establish and run, became a very significant and popular community service.

During and following the completion of the church renovation, the membership began to steadily grow again. There was a consecutive recruiting of staff to carry the leadership load. Andrew Margetson was employed as Childrens’ Worker in 2000 and the following year, Andrew Bryant was appointed Pastor for Evangelism. 2002 saw the appointment of Brad Blacker (one of a number of student pastors who have worked for the church in this decade) as Youth Pastor. Brad remained in that role until 2008, accepting a call in Katoomba. In 2003, Broderick Storey (a long-time member) joined to team, along with Rick Mumford, to build and run the sports centre business/ministry. in the course of time, Broderick became the Executive Pastor, managing much of the business and adminstrive aspects of the church.

In 200x, Sheridan Storey joined the team as Administrative Assistant and Jill Hubbard became the Pathways Pastor. In 200x, Andrew Margetson moved to Metford Church and was succeeded by Jackie Walz (her position now retitled as Childrens’ Pastor). The Playgroup ministry had been steadiily building under the lay leadership of Leanne Shanks and in 200x, Adele de la Harpe was formally appointed to run the rapidly expanding playgroup ministry. As that continued to grow, Mellisa Holmes was employed in 2008 to aid in playgroup administration.