I was born in Grappenhall, Cheshire, midway between Liverpool and Manchester, into a chapel-going family (United Methodist Free Church) with a strong awareness of its Protestant roots. An ancestor had served the Parliamentary cause as captain in Sir William Brereton’s Cheshire Army and was present when Richard Baxter preached before the Parliamentary troops in Nantwich in 1643.

It was during the final months at Teacher Training College, though I had attended the Christian Union throughout, that I was convicted of sin, and eventually, by the grace of God, came to trust in Christ as Saviour and Lord.

At this time I was attending the Baptist Chapel at Dudley, under the excellent ministry of Alun McNabb. He had just begun to hold Open-Air Meetings in Dudley Market place, at the spot where John Wesley had preached during his visits to the town 200 years before. I was interested in John Wesley and also keen on the idea of Open-Air witness, so I became an enthusiastic supporter of this venture. A number of raw recruits like myself were asked to read portions of Scripture in between the short sermons of the more experienced men. Eventually I found myself making applications of the passages read, and became one might say, an open-air preacher.

Inwardly during this period, I felt that the Lord was calling me to the preaching ministry, and though I never shared this with anyone else, Providence ordained that I was asked to preach at Dudley Chapel and several other places in the district.

It was also at this time that I met my wife Anne, a teacher from Hertfordshire, and we were married in 1979; we have two grown-up children, Elizabeth and Wesley.

Finally, becoming convinced that the Lord was calling me to full-time ministry I shared this with the church, who recommended that I embarked upon the part-time courses organised by the London Reformed Baptist Seminary at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. This enabled me to study and test my calling further, whilst remaining in teaching, continuing to serve in the church and supplying pulpits in other local congregations. This was followed by two-years of full-time theological training at the London Theological Seminary, Finchley.

It was here, on the premises of Kensit Memorial Bible College that I first became aware of the work of John Kensit, met the late Mr Alfred Latimer Kensit, and made the acquaintance of the then secretary of the Protestant Truth Society, Mr Alex Roberts. This contact eventually, in the purposes of God led to my being asked to join the PTS Council in 1991.

On leaving college I was called to Hadleigh Baptist Church in Suffolk, where I served for 13 years. Hadleigh had been the home of Dr Rowland Taylor, one of the first martyrs of the Marian persecution of 1555. The monument marking the place of his martyrdom, in a quiet field just outside the town, became a hallowed spot to me. Every year the young people would help to clear and clean the monument and this became an opportunity to remind them of the importance of the Reformation and what it achieved, and of the faith and courage of men like Dr Rowland Taylor.

Whilst in Suffolk I served on several of the Grace Baptist Association Committees, and had the privilege of being Moderator in 1991. During the same period the late Mr Gordon Hawkins invited me to be a member of the Sovereign Grace Union Committee. I also took part in the Suffolk Preachers Seminary, lecturing in Systematic Theology and this led to my being asked to give occasional lectures at the LRBS; I have been grateful to be in a very small way connected with the great work done by the Metropolitan Tabernacle in recent years. In order to better equip myself for these responsibilities I studied privately for BA and MA degrees.

In 1998 I was called back to the West Midlands to the pastorate of Ebenezer Baptist Chapel, Old Hill, Birmingham. We have experienced six most blessed years in this place and are thankful to minister to a church that has remained true to its Protestant foundations. In these recent years I have been a member of the Trinitarian Bible Society Committee and a trustee of the Cherith Trust, a local charity founded by Mr Harold Crowter, committed to the care of elderly believers.

Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to travel to the Far East to lecture at the Reformed Baptist Ministers Conference in Manila, and saw something of the hunger for the Word of God in that region. Under the leadership of Brian Ellis a great work is being done. It was thrilling for my wife and I to see at first-hand the Protestant ethic being applied amongst the poor and underprivileged of that city to very great effect.

In our hallway at home, I keep a picture of 'The Landing of William of Orange at Torbay in 1688', with the well-known motto flying from the ships mast.... 'The Protestant religion and the liberties of England I will maintain'. It serves as a constant reminder to me of our priceless Christian heritage, and of our solemn responsibilities by the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the strength that God alone can give, to seek to maintain and advance these priceless blessings.

Roland Burrows