Portrait of Andrew Fuller Pastor at Soham Baptist Church from 1775-1782

Places go down in our history according to what happened there. I must admit, every lime I drive through Glencoe in the western highlands, a shiver goes down my spine as I think about the massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells in 1692. And then there is Hastings ... Bannockburn ... the Normandy beaches. More recently, place names have not been associated so much with glorious victories as with terrible tragedies - Hungerford ... Locherbie ... Dunblane ... and now Soham.
But is this how it ought to be? Is this how we should remember Soham? No, Soham has other reasons for going down in the annals of history - reasons that have nothing to do with murder and heartache. This year, the Baptist congregation has celebrated the 250th anniversary of the founding of our church. A group of Christian folk believing in baptism by total immersion upon their profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ first met at Brook Dam in 1752.
And this summer, on a Wednesday evening right in the midst of our community crisis, we gathered together at our current home, round the corner in Clay Street, with guests and friends to remember the life and times of Andrew Fuller - the Christian preacher and teacher at the cutting edge of early Christian mission.
Soham was where Fuller’s parents lived.., where he married.., where eight Of his 11 children died in infancy. And it was here in Soham that he became the pastor of the Baptist Church in 1775. Soham was the place where he preached and prayed ... where he corresponded with William Carey, the great Baptist missionary pioneer and with William Wilberforce, the great Anglican reformer. It was here in Soham that the vision came for Christian mission in India.
Today, through the life and legacy of one of its earlier citizens, this small fenland town has a history equal to any of our greatest cities. Even now, Soham’s influence is felt as far away as California where a leading theological seminary bears the name of Andrew Fuller. What a rich biblical heritage we owe him. God used this man to rescue generations of Bible-believing Christians from an introverted spirituality and lead them forward into the joy of daring, faithful gospel outreach in the mould of the early church. Today, here in the town, the good seed of the gospel is still being sown more than 200 years later. It is still bearing fruit in lives that God touches in his kindness. And the witness to the power and the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ goes on with renewed vigour.
We won’t ever he able to forget the shocking events of the summer, 2002. But there are many other things we can remember. Not least, we can be thankful for a preacher God used to turn his world the right way up. And we can pray that God will raise up more men of the calibre of Andrew Fuller.

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 Directions

Soham Baptist Church is located on Clay Street, just off the War Memorial in the Town Centre. 
Parking is available just beyond the church in the Library car park on the left hand side.

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