Situated on the corner of Park Road West and Connaught Road is a church building that enjoys a privileged position. It is a building many people walk past and wonder about. Occasionally, in the summer months, people wander into services on their way to or from West Park. The building has stood opposite the park since the early 1900s. Originally built for a Unitarian congregation, the building is thought to have been designed by W.H. Ward who also designed the Great Western Arcade in Birmingham.
The building is now home to West Park Church, a congregation of believers that first formed in 1968 as Merridale Church. Most of that original gathering of believers had been members of the Methodist Church on Lord Street before its closure. United by a belief in the authority of the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice, the young congregation began to worship together and to seek out new premises. After a period of time in Retreat Street, the congregation purchased their current home in the early 1980s.
The building at West Park was in poor condition and the first job was to make the wooden hut at the rear of the building (now gone) usable for worship. Then came the hard work renovating the main building and creating a modern space for worship and other activities. The stories of fellowship, of hard work and of God’s provision could fill any number of pages, but it is not these that make West Park Church what it is today.
From the very beginning the congregation were committed to the Bible as the inerrant word of God and to Jesus as the only way to God. The church has been shaped by this belief and today preaching is still central to the worship of the church. Usually the weekly ministry will work its way through a book of the Bible or, occasionally through a topic of Bible teaching. In every case the aim is to better understand God’s revelation that He might be glorified more, the church be built up in faith, and both individually and collectively the church might be used by God to extend His Kingdom. Over the years the church has come to cherish the Bible’s teaching about God’s sovereignty in all things and of the centrality of Jesus to everything.
Soon after forming, the congregation became convinced that the Bible teaches that baptism is to be applied to believers by full immersion. As a result they found a church with a baptistery and conducted a service in which the elders and most of the congregation were baptised. During the renovations of the building at West Park a baptistery was installed and over the years numerous people have been baptised by immersion on profession of their faith in Jesus.
West Park Church has never chosen to join a denomination but has happily shared fellowship with other like-minded congregations. The congregation has been described by others as an independent evangelical church and as a reformed baptist church, but has studiously avoided using labels to describe itself. Labels can become limitations and the church at West Park has wanted to define itself not by denominational allegiance but by its commitment to keeping God’s word. Calling itself West Park Church, the congregation simply invites people to come and hear the word of God.
“The building has stood opposite the park since the early 1900s. Originally built for a Unitarian congregation, the building is thought to have been designed by W.H. Ward who also designed the Great Western Arcade in Birmingham.
The building is now home to West Park Church, a congregation of believers that first formed in 1968 as Merridale Church.“