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 the seventies / sunday schools / other activities / conclusion

The opening celebration of the Campbell Gospel Chapel will long be remembered by the members of the period who were joined by Assembly representatives from Tasmania Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland to offer thanks and praise to the Lord for His provision.

A fitting conclusion to the inaugural service at the chapel was the baptism of two young ladies who had been brought to the Lord through the teaching of the Sunday School and the Senior Youth Fellowship.

Many assemblies and individual believers contributed towards the cost of the building which was designed by Sydney architect, Mr. John Odell, and erected under the supervision of Mr. Ernest Munns of Kevin J. Curtin and Partners. The Assembly was deeply grateful to all who contributed financially and in other ways.

The high point in the life of the Assembly assuredly was in the 1970s during which period there was considerable growth spiritually and numerically. A perusal of the Prayer Directory in 1975 discloses that at the time 180 adults, the majority of whom were in the Assembly fellowship for at least part of that year, and 85 children were listed.

They were days of rich fellowship and blessing. In these years, the Elders held a number of Annual Weekend Retreats for prayer and consideration of the needs of the fellowship. They were times of blessing for the Elders and doubtless in turn  for the Assembly as a whole.

it was during this time, a specially equipped vehicle and caravan started facilitating country and city evangelistic work. This was to Canberra, a novel but meaningful open-air Gospel witness in Civic Centre.

Early in 1970, a second Sunday School, as an extension of the main work of the Assembly at Campbell, was commenced at Cook. This work flourished for several years.

An exercise towards the end of 1972 to establish a Sunday School in the Weston creek area led to the formation in the new year of a covenanter Group at the Duffy Primary School. Fifty-five students commenced in March 1973.

Many Boys and Girls rallies were also organised during this time by various servants of God in the Assembly, with the paramount aim of leading youths and children to a personal knowledge of
Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and leaders had the joy from time to time of seeing young lives handed over to the Lord.

A number of youth activities attracted interest in these formative years. High on the scale of appeal was the annual Youth Camp held each June at Burrill Pines. This weekend of fun and spiritual input was often the scene of much blessing among young people.

In addition to gatherings convened at times for the extension of missionary interest and prayer, a Ladies Coffee Hour was first convened in 1973 at the Griffin Centre, Civic, as an outreach to friends of Assembly ladies.

A further milestone in the life of the Campbell Assembly was passed when, accepting the challenge of  evangelistic outreach in a city which had a marked secularist outlook and, beneath its beauty, many lonely and aching hearts, two new assemblies were commenced at the Chifley and Duffy primary schools on 7 November, 1976 with companies of 30 and 15 respectively.

WE PRAISE the Lord for His goodness, for His blessing in the lives of many of His followers. We bless His name as we think of those who came to know Him as Lord and Savior, of those who found support and encouragement in times of personal difficulty, of lives that have been enriched.

Some years ago Dr. G.D James wrote: The Lord has entrusted to us the greatest and the most tremendous of all the powers ever known to science or man - the power of the dynamic of the Gospel of Christ. What God needs is not money or new organisations or new methods,
but new men.

-Excerpted from 'Campbell Gospel Chapel, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary' compiled by Mr. A.J.G Simpson