For most people in our Community the name David Russell won’t mean anything but for many within the Baptist family his name will evoke many memories. Following ministry, which included a pastorate at Berwick, he went on to be a great college principal and then as a General Secretary of the Baptist Union led the denomination for many years. He was President of the Union in the 1980’s and it was during this period that we invited him to Portrack, the church that I was pioneering and pastoring for a weekend.
It was the measure of the man that whilst he would have received many invitations from far bigger and prestigious places than Portrack that he chose to accept our invitation.
He was quite a formidable character; strong personality commanding presence and on first impression, slightly intimidating. We, who were operating then, as we have done often since, operated an ‘open house’ were slightly apprehensive about him staying us. We lived in a manse that was cold, hard to heat and we had very little money. Like the rest of the church we were relatively poor. We picked him up from the station and from the moment he arrived he was a wonderful guest; gracious, warm-hearted, delightful with our young children and appreciate of every aspect of our hospitality, all was going very well. That was until I explained to him in more detail our plans for the Saturday night gathering. He had clearly spent most of his presidency speaking, preaching or teaching in formal settings and the prospect of an informal gathering with some food, drink and music was not something he was used to. With a wry, or was that slightly withering look? he glanced at the rough outline of what could hardly be described as a programme for the evening. My fears were heightened but then allayed as soon as we got into the evening gathering. He quickly adjusted his style of presentation, relaxed, read the situation very well and everyone from the church who gathered enjoyed a wonderful evening. Instead of preaching he told us stories of his life, his journey of faith and particularly his meeting with brothers and sisters in Christ for whom life was really tough, suffering persecution, oppression and in some cases torture for their faith behind the Iron Curtain, under communism. Folks who wondered what on earth we were doing having the President of the Baptist Union come to Portrack, soon had their fears, concerns and prejudices melted away by this very human, passionate and interesting man of God. He probably, as much as anybody who ever came to visit Portrack, helped to make a new pioneering church feel part of a wider family. We were a small, exciting but nevertheless struggling group of young believers trying to make sense of life and faith in urban Teesside during a terrible period of economic downturn and massive unemployment in the 1980’s. He died last week and I am not surprised to read the many tributes to him in this week’s columns of the Baptist Times. The memories of a good man are a blessing indeed.
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