Pastor
Today's Leadership in Training:
We are privileged to have two men in our church who have taken on the burden of preaching and are doing an excellent job of it, while studying to further equip themselves. The church was blessed to receive an excellent pastoral training curriculum from Pastor Ronald Aebersold, of Corning, New York, which is giving them a good foundation as they learn on-the -job!
Oliver Crabtree
Oliver Hodgkinson
Pastor Bill Smith (went home to heaven 31.5.2016)
Founding pastor of 35 years (church started in 1982)
Bill grew up on a dairy farm in New York State. He was saved at the age of 22 and soon went off to study the Bible at Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga Tennessee. Bill graduated from Prairie Bible College in Three Hills Alberta Canada. He served three years as the Associate Pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Washington Ga. In 1982 Bill moved with his wife Debra and two children to Blackpool England to begin planting an Independent Baptist Church. He has continued at the church in Blackpool for the better part of 32 years. Bill is a certified GM factory-trained auto engineer and over the years he has worked, among other things, as an armed guard, a yard man, a builders mate, a dental technician and a baker.
Bill’s wife, Debra, was born in Blackpool, England and moved with her parents to Edmonton, Alberta Canada when she was 11 years old. Debra attended Central Pentecostal College, then Tennessee Temple University where she met Bill. She also took distance learning courses from Liberty University. She Studied Nursery Nursing at the University of Lancaster and is qualified as a teacher in Child Care, Child Play and Child Protection.
Bill and Debra met at Tennessee Temple University. They married in 1976. They have 5 children and 12 grand children. Their missionary support funds are handled by The Central Missionary Clearing House in Houston, Texas. Their sending church is The Central Baptist Church of East Corning. New York.
Bill and Debra have faced many fiery trials over these past 32 years but the Lord has sustained them through them all.
“If I had set out to do this work in my own strength and merits it would have failed and ceased to exist 32 years ago. However as long as we endeavour to build the work here on the eternal Word of God it will remain and prosper for as long as the Lord wills,”
Pastor Bill Smith
