iron hall
evangelical church
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History of the Iron Hall
Beginnings
Sometime prior to 1890 Charles W. Lepper had a spiritual exercise to reach the people in East Belfast with the gospel. To this end he commenced an outreach work in an Orange Hall in Belfast. The work was blessed of the Lord, so he subsequently acquired on the 27th March 1890, the ground at the corner of Thorndyke Street, off Templemore Avenue, on which he erected a building which became known as The Iron Mission Hall. No doubt this was because portions of the building were of corrugated iron.
Pastors
In the early days of the Iron Hall the work of the Lord expanded so much that the brethren there felt it was necessary to appoint a full time resident evangelist. They appointed a brother called Mr Driver, sadly we don't know the date of his appointment. Then in 1909 Pastor Robert Graham began his ministry in the Iron Hall and he served there until 1916. In 1916 Pastor W. E. Tocher commenced his ministry in the Iron Hall and he ministered until 1930.
In 1939 Pastor T. E. Evans commenced his ministry in the Iron Hall and he served there until 1962. Then in January 1966 Pastor J. T. Mitchell took up the Pastorate and served until his retirement in September 1987. In 1987 Pastor Denis Lyle commenced his ministry in the Iron Hall and he ministered there until 1998, when he moved to Pastor another church. Then in 1999 Pastor David Legge commenced his ministry at the Iron Hall and he served there until May 2008. He left the Iron Hall to begin a new ministry as an itinerant evangelist and bible teacher.
New Building
After a number of years of prayerful consideration regarding a new church building the Lord made a portion of ground available adjacent to the original Iron Hall site. This enabled plans to be drawn up for the construction of a new purpose built church building, which would provide a main auditorium with balcony, childrens’ church room, crèche and an upper room for Breaking Bread each Lord’s Day morning. The new building was opened in November 2004.
Activity Centre
Shortly after the new building was opened, a team of volunteers within the church started the work to transform the former Iron Hall building into an activity centre comprising a multi-purpose hall, meeting room, store, office and young peoples’ room. The new Activity Centre has provided the opportunity to build upon existing works and to explore new opportunities to reach out into the community.
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