Chapel Street, Ashwell
One bookat a time
A Baptist church that has been working its way through the Bible since 1841 and is currently about a third of the way into Romans. Two services on a Sunday, and coffee that is better than it used to be.
Sundays
Two services, and a prayer meeting in the week.
- Sunday 10:30 Morning service
Nothing on a Sunday requires you to have been before, to stand up, or to say anything.
What we are preaching
A book at a time, in order, however long it takes.
Sunday mornings until the spring. Chapters 1 to 8 are on the sermons page if you would like to catch up, though you do not need to.
Baptism
By immersion, on profession of faith — and the questions people actually have about it.
Next baptisms — Sunday 27 September
In the morning service, with a shared lunch afterwardsWe baptise three or four times a year. There is no minimum age and no maximum.
People think about this for a long time before they mention it, so here are the answers to the questions nobody asks out loud.
You do not have to speak. Most people say a few sentences about how they came to faith. If you would rather not, somebody will read it for you, or nothing will be said at all. Nobody has ever been made to.
You wear ordinary clothes. Something dark that you do not mind getting wet, and bring a towel and a change. The water is heated.
You will not be dropped. Two people hold you and it takes about three seconds. Several dozen of the congregation have done it and will happily tell you what it was like.
Pastor since 2017
Dan Isibor
I preach through a book because it stops me only preaching on what I find interesting, and because a congregation that has been through Romans together has something in common that a congregation of good individual talks does not.
I am not hard to get hold of. If you have a question you would rather not ask in front of anybody, email is fine and so is turning up on Tuesday morning.
What we believeThree ways in
Most people arrive by one of these rather than by walking into a Sunday cold.
A Sunday morning
Half past ten, about ninety minutes, coffee at both ends. Songs, a reading, and a sermon of around thirty-five minutes — which is longer than you may be used to and is the point of the place.
What it is likeA group
Eight groups meeting in houses across the town, most of them on a Wednesday. Ten or twelve people, a passage, coffee, and the sort of conversation that is difficult in a room of two hundred.
Where they meetThe prayer meeting
Wednesday at a quarter to eight. The least polished thing we do and the one most members would say they would miss most. Nobody is asked to pray aloud.
The questions people actually ask
What do people wear?
Anything. You will see suits and you will see shorts, and neither gets a second look.
Thirty-five minutes of preaching?
Yes, and it is the reason most of the congregation is here. If it is not what you are after, that is a perfectly reasonable conclusion to reach and nobody will chase you about it.
Will I have to talk to anyone?
Somebody will say hello at the door and then leave you alone. If you want to slip out during the last song, several people do that every week.
What about my children?
Groups for 3–11s during the sermon, and a creche for under-3s. Everyone working with them is DBS-checked and our safeguarding policy is on the about page. Children are welcome to stay in throughout instead.
Do I have to give money?
No, and visitors are specifically asked not to. There is a box by the door rather than a collection during the service, which spares everybody the moment.
Is the building accessible?
Step-free from Chapel Street, an accessible WC, a hearing loop and large-print Bibles. The gallery is up steep stairs and is not accessible.