ALUN T. MCNABB: END OF NOTABLE DUDLEY MINISTRY

On Saturday October 11 at 3 p.m. in Priory Road Baptist Church in Dudley a thanksgiving service was held for the long ministry of Alun McNabb. The church was filled, so that 33 church members agreed to sit behind the pulpit in the choir stalls facing the capacity congregation, and tubular steel chairs occupied the aisles. The congregation sang the four hymns, The Lord Jehovah reigns, How vast the treasure we possess, Hail Thou once despised Jesus, and Not what I am, O Lord, but what Thou art.

One of the oversight at the church, Malcolm Lacey chaired the meetings, acknowledging their present uncertainty but looking to God to provide another man who would follow the godly example and maintain the truths and direction in which Alun had led the church. Wesley McNabb, the pastor of Slade Evangelical Church in London, read Psalm 145. Roland Burrows of Ebenezer Baptist Church Old Hill spoke on behalf of those men who had gone into the ministry under Alun pointing our how he had been a pastors’ pastor, always encouraging and wise in his counsels, which were eagerly sought all across the United Kingdom. “Alun trained us; he constructively criticised us; he prayed for us; he encouraged us. He could call us up on a Sunday morning and express his hopes that we would have a good day; he inspired us to be faithful to the gospel. He showed us those things that were essential. He commended the valuable old paths, and displayed a courageous capacity to endure and rise above difficulties. Alun has given to this church unstintingly and unswervedly of his own heart and soul.

On behalf of the oversight Ernest Richardson spoke of Alun standing in the pulpit, the market place, the school assemblies, the prayer meetings and the officers’ meetings. He brought a sense of God with him when he entered the pulpit. He had a special bond with his fellow elders and they annually signed the following covenant which is hung in the church vestibule:

OFFICERS’ COVENANT REGARDING CONGREGATIONAL UNITY

Having for many years enjoyed a precious peace and stability in our Church, the Overseers feel it wise and prudent to make the following statement and each to sign it annually. This Covenant to be on public display as a challenge to us and as an example to the Congregation.

Bearing in mind the subtleties of Satan, the weakness of our own hearts, the needs of our Congregation, and the history of distressing disunity in some of the Churches, we, the Officers of Priory Road Baptist Church, hereby covenant before God and each other:

1. To promise to be loving and loyal to each other at all times and to “endeavour to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace,” Ephesians 4 verse 3, remembering that we are under-shepherds of a blood-bought people who are precious to the Christ who redeemed them.

2. To promise that if trouble is found amongst the Fellowship we will do all in our power to be involved in a way that is fair, honest and open, in seeking to bring a restoration of harmony, not regarding our own reputation.

3. To promise never to side with secret criticism of a fellow Officer, but to tell him of the matter and to support him, or, if the criticism be deemed justifiable, to rebuke him in love, remembering that, “Open rebuke is better than secret love.” Proverbs 27v5

4. To promise that any disagreements within the Oversight be conducted in the spirit of love and Christian submission, at our monthly meetings, or in private, but never to engage a fellow Officer in open conflict before Members at Business Meetings, or on any other occasion.

“Esteem others better” Phil 2 v3.
“Love is not easily provoked.” 1 Cor 13 v5
“Love one another as I have loved you.” John 13v34
“Follow after things that make for peace.” Rom 14v19

When Alun and Margaret McNabb responded to the warm words they were both appreciative, composed and humble, Margaret speaking of how hard she was finding it to leave the Manse which had been the family home for about 30 years, but four weeks ago a flood had ruined the ground floor of the Manse and this unhappy providence had helped loosen her from those ties to that home with all its happy family memories. They are moving to a new home three miles away. Alun spoke of the special bonds which he had with the church oversight even in their time of prayer the previous evening. He reminisced of the beginnings of his ministry in 1961 in the Rosendale Valley. “We are green now,” he said, “but how green we were then.” Keith Mawdsley had gone to a church in that valley three years before him, beginning their friendship, when they were the only evangelical preachers in the whole area.

When Keith Mawdsley spoke he thanked God for Alun as a serious gospel man, determined not to know anything except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Keith’s text was Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” He spoke of why and how we glory in the cross and what effect glorying in the cross had.

In a quotation of J.C.Ryle from his preface to “Old Paths” Keith Mawdsley could sum up the whole impact of the 42 years of Alun McNabb’s ministry. J.C.Ryle wrote:

‘From these “paths” I see no reason to depart. They are often sneered at and ridiculed, as old-fashioned, effete, worn out, and powerless. Be it so. “None of these things move me”. I firmly maintain that the way of the school to which I belong is the “more excellent way”. The longer I live the more I am convinced that the world needs no new Gospel, as some profess to think. I am thoroughly persuaded that the world needs nothing but a bold, full, unflinching teaching of the “old paths.” The heart of man is the same in every age. The spiritual medicine which it requires is always the same.

‘I repeat most emphatically that I am not ashamed of what are commonly called “Evangelical principles.” Fiercely and bitterly as those principles are assailed on all sides, loudly and scornfully as some proclaim that they have done their work and are useless in this day, I see no evidence whatever that they are defective or decayed, and I see no reason for giving them up. No doubt other schools of thought produce great outward effects on mankind, gather large congregations, attain great popularity, and by means of music, ornaments, gestures, postures, and a generally histrionic ceremonial, make a great show of religion. I see it all, and I am not surprised. It is exactly what a study of human nature by the light of the Bible would lead me to expect. But for real inward effects on hearts, and outward effects on lives, I see no teaching so powerful as thorough, genuine Evangelical teaching. Just in proportion as the preachers of other schools borrow Evangelical weapons and Evangelical phraseology I see them obtaining influence. No doubt the good that is done in the world is little, and evil abounds. But I am certain that the teaching which does most good is that of the despised Evangelical school. It is not merely true and good up to a certain point, and then defective and needing additions, as some tell us; it is true and good all round. and needs no addition at all.” Those have been Alun McNabb’s convictions. One could wish that he had completed his magisterial series preaching through the gospel of Matthew with the end of that book in sight and only a chapter or so to go, but with his reoccuring bouts of ill health this was God’s time for this phase of his ministry to come to an end. May God greatly use Alun McNabb in the years to come.

GEOFF THOMAS

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