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The Life of the Iron Hall... 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, on 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. From the beginning and throughout its entire 100 years history the Iron Hall has maintained its very strong evangelical ministry! Over the years, thousands of people have come to know the Saviour. One can recall one thousand boys and girls attending a children's mission and, during one particular gospel mission, one hundred adults professed faith in Christ. It appears that the work expanded so much that the early brethren felt it was necessary to call a full time resident evangelist. A Mr Driver was appointed by the elders but there is little information available with respect to the date. Pastor Robert Graham and his wife then took up the ministry in 1909 and served faithfully until 1916. Pastor W. E. Tocher commenced his ministry about 1916. He was a very able minister of the word, and crowds flocked to hear him. His ministry continued until 1930.
Mr Cooke was called to the Pastorate by the Elders and he served about three years. Alexander Marks, a blind Jew, was invited for about six weeks ministry. He informed the elders that a Pastor T. E. Evans was returning home from India and might be interested in the Pastorate. Mr and Mrs Evans came to us in 1939 and served until 1962. His ministry was of much more personal nature than public in that he visited hospitals, prisons and the homes of his members extensively. He was a very caring Pastor and a brother beloved. In January 1966 Mr and Mrs J. T. Mitchell took up the Pastorate and served until their retirement in September 1987. It was recorded in City Week 14th April 1966, that “under Mr Mitchell large audiences are again a feature of the Iron Hall especially on Sunday and Monday evenings and older members of the fellowship say that he reminds them of Mr Tocher”. Pastor Denis Lyle and his wife Catherine commenced their ministry in 1987. Mr Lyle maintained the fundamental biblical teaching coupled with evangelical outreach which has been the policy of the Iron Hall since its foundation. Pastor Lyle moved to Pastor Lurgan Baptist Church in 1998. He was a very able Biblical expositor, and in particular spent a lot of time teaching truths from prophetic books. He subsequently authored two books as a result of his Bible Class on a Monday night.
Further to many years of prayerful consideration the Lord made a portion of ground available adjacent to the original Iron Hall site enabling plans to be drawn up for the construction of a new purpose built church 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 completed and officially opened in November 2004. In 1999 Pastor David Legge accepted the call to Iron Hall. David and his wife Barbara joined us from his previous post of assistant pastor at Portadown Baptist. David is an excellent preacher and Bible teacher. His weekly sermons and Bible studies are available on www.preachtheword.com.
Shortly after this, work was carried out by a team of volunteers within the
church 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 Activity Centre has provided the opportunity to cement the existing
works and to explore new opportunities to reach out into the community.
Q. Why was it called Iron Hall?
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