Below is a brief summary of a historical sketch of the church taken from a more detailed (and interesting) booklet which was compiled by the late Pastor, Mr Hedley Taylor, who passed away in May 2019. In his booklet, Hedley expressed the following prayerful desire, which we as a church and congregation would seek to echo:
“Our prayer as a church is that the Lord’s presence may graciously fill this place, and that His Word may go forth with power to the conversion of souls and the building up of His Church according to the riches of His grace”.
BEGINNINGS
In 1908, a group of Christian believers started to meet for worship in Bromley. They had previously been travelling to Forest Hill, among other places to worship, but they felt constrained to start a place of worship in Bromley.
The first meetings took place in the front room of the house of one of these believers, in Canon Road, Bromley, until a larger room became available above Hawkins’ Jewellers in West Street. On Wednesday 16th December 1908, Mr J.C.Burt preached the first service in this room to a congregation of 19. From that time, regular Sunday and Wednesday (evening) services continued for nearly 30 years, and a church was eventually formed in 1924. Thus the foundation was laid for the present Rehoboth Chapel.
In 1938, the Electricity Board required the premises, and notice was given to vacate the room over the Jeweller’s shop. The last sermon to be held there was on Sunday 19th June 1938 to a company of 21 by Mr Jesse Delves of Clapham. Rather than disband completely, services were once again held at Canon Road for one year.
In June 1939, the Lecture Hall in Bromley became available to rent, and throughout the war years services were held there; but in 1946, the church was once again confronted with the problem of finding new premises. A small room became available to rent at the back of the YWCA Hall in London Road, and from 1946 to 1958, Sunday services were held there. The ministry was faithful and fruitful and the church continued to increase.
FIRST “PERMANENT” CHAPEL BUILDING
It had long been the desire of the church to have their own church building. Many petitions had been put up for the Lord to appear in this matter, but the matter became more urgent in June 1958 when the church was informed that they must vacate the YWCA Hall by December 31st as the Hall was to be sold. Every effort was made to find suitable alternative premises, but all to no avail. The YWCA then agreed to let the Hall out on a weekly basis, and by February 1959, the YWCA premises remained unsold. The church felt that a request should be made for them to buy the property. The price of purchase was £4000, but the chapel Building Fund had only reached about £400! It seemed an impossible situation, but the faith of one of the church members was strengthened by the words in Ezekiel, where it speaks of the Lord willing to be inquired of by the house of Israel to do these things for them. Also, the words of William Cowper’s hymn were sweetly applied to the Deacon, Mr S Rowland:
“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.”
The Deacon made enquiries about the possibility of a loan, but on the following Sunday, a member of the congregation asked him to call. The result of that visit was a promise of £2000. The was a great encouragement, and an offer was made to buy the YWCA Hall at a price of £3500. Within a few days, a loan of £500 was made and several further generous donations enabled the church to purchase the premises.
Two minsters, quite independently of each other, were led at that time to speak of “Rehoboth”, and it was felt by the church that this should be the name given to the chapel, as they felt the Lord had made room for them.
In September 1960, opening services were held at “Rehoboth”, about 200 people being present. Mr F. Windridge preached in the afternoon, and Mr A.G Jarman in the evening. It was a memorable occasion.
MOVE TO HIGHLAND ROAD
Since the purchase of the YWCA Hall in 1960, the church was approached several times by Frampton Property Company with proposals to change sites, but never felt led to entertain the thought of moving, particularly in view of their history and the way the Lord had wonderfully provided for them. However, in November 1982 the church was again approached with a letter of proposition from Framptons, which included plans to build a chapel on a site to the rear of 109, London Road (Highland Road), in exchange for their current site and building at 13, London Road. This was put before the church, and it was felt that with so much redevelopment in the immediate vicinity of the chapel, it was right to prayerfully review the previous decision and to watch the Lord’s hand in the matter.
The pastor, Mr Hedley Taylor, was much encouraged by Mr Frampton’s acceptance of Hedley’s request to pray before and after meetings that took place with him at the Frampton office to negotiate various details of the plans. The months that followed saw various difficulties, but also encouragements from the Word of God. A refusal of planning permission necessitated an Appeal which Mr Frampton felt led to make. The Lord graciously appeared, over-ruling all matters, and the Appeal was successful.
After a lot of unseen activity, and both private and public prayer to Almighty God, plans were drawn up, revised and amended and the building work commenced The church finally took possession of the new building, and a Service of Thanksgiving for the opening of the new chapel building was held on Friday 5th July 1985, when Mr C.A. Wood preached from the words in Genesis 26:22: “And he (Isaac) removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land”. Mr Wood also linked his thoughts in with the last clause of Genesis 27:27: “…..the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:…”. A good company of friends from various places gathered and the chapel was nearly full.