Our own return to Inverness took place in November, 1970, but prior to this the church had already been constituted, in the July of that year, and had begun to formally meet together. Articles of Faith had been drawn up and subscribed to, and this intervening period presented many challenges.
When it had first been decided to commit unto the Lord the possibility of forming an independent reformed witness in Inverness, two needs were faced: a place to gather to worship for the church, and a home for myself and family. Under the Lord's hand, the Town Council of Inverness met the latter, and a local undertaker met the former, providing us with the use of his funeral parlour! This was, no doubt, something of a unique meeting place for a company of the Lord's people, but as we were persuaded that God was going to do a "new thing" for us, we were not to be surprised at any of the strange turns that events were possibly going to take in the days ahead. We accepted the offer of the Chapel of Ease with gratitude and began services there in November. At this time the church met under the name of the Inverness Independent church, but this was later changed to the present name of the Reformed Baptist church of Inverness
Although grateful for the use of the funeral parlour premises it was apparent that we must search out a "settled place" to carry on the church's work and testimony. Again, we were forced to turn our eyes away from the "obvious" (perhaps a vacant church building etc.) to what the Lord, in His determinate counsel and foreknowledge had reserved for us. That, in fact, turned out to be two very old and delapidated wooden bungalows, sitting admist high, overgrown grass and bushes: (see picture). As we paced-out the dimensions of the larger of the two structures we discovered that with all the interior walls taken away we could renovate it into a meeting-house to accommodate over a hundred people.
The incidents involving the provisions and providence of the Lord over this period of time - beginning form when we first looked at the buildings, eventually purchased and renovated them, and began our worship there - are legion. One such occurrence, right at the outset, was a great encouragement to us, and well-remembered.
As stated, the one thing necessary to begin the conversion of one of the houses into a church building was the removal of all the interior walls. We had consulted various people about this and all had given a rather hesitating "Yes - it could be done," provided we were ready, with pillars, to shore-up the roof if the need arose. We decided to go ahead. One night as we were engaged in the work, an old gentleman called into see what was going on. He turned out to be the man who had actually erected the house some thirty-six years previous; hence his interest. As he went on to relate how he had constructed the building, our hearts rejoiced in the goodness of the Lord. He told us that he had not, in fact built it as a house, but as a hall-structure - spanning the roof from wall to wall, and setting up the room partitions only after the whole thing was completed. Our task was simply to remove the wall partitions, strengthen the existing beams, and turn the "house" back into what it had been some thirty-six years previous in that determinate counsel and foreknowledge of our God.
In July 1972, after much labour, and numerous tokens of God's grace and sufficiency, we moved into the buildings, with much thanks giving to the Lord. Over the years we have endeavoured to improve the premises in various ways, but above all things, looking to that which goes beyond the four walls, to the building up of the "spiritual house," which is the "habitation of God through the Spirit." Please pray for that.
