Long Sutton Baptist Church’s new minister Rev Kevin Newton is to be officially inducted this Sunday (July 5).
After previously carrying out monthly services, he’s now taken up the part time position at the West Street-based church.
“My journey to Long Sutton really started on the island of St Kitts in the Caribbean,” said Rev Newton. “I was working as a carer supporting adults with learning disabilities when my wife Ruth and I were living in Sevenoaks in Kent.
“My wife worked for the Anglican Mission Society (USPG) in London and one of the projects was the Experience Exchange Programme which involved volunteering oversees.
“Ruth and I volunteered in 2004 to go to the island of St Kitts for six months as there was an opening that needed to be filled.
“As Christians we have a strong faith in God, and it was on the island that God called me to Baptist ministry with the question, ‘Have you ever thought of being a Baptist minister?’
“After much prayer, I felt that this was God’s calling on my life.”
After studying at Moorlands Bible College in Hampshire Rev Newton gained a BA Honours degree in Applied Theology.
His first posting saw four years in Southampton moving to Wisbech Baptist Church where he stayed for over seven years.
Semi-retirement saw him return to the role of carer taking a position in a residential home for the elderly in Fleet Hargate and he now works at The Bancroft Care Home in Long Sutton.
After answering a request by the local baptist church to take services, he returned to the pulpit last year and is taking on a part time minister role again.
Rev Newton says anyone is welcome to attend Sunday’s induction where he will promise to ‘lead the church in a way that is honouring God’.
“I will promise to lead and look after the congregation and help them grow spiritually, and to encourage all members to think beyond the four walls of the church as they reach out to the surrounding community,” he said.
“It is also about the congregation promising before God to support and look after their minister, all to the glory of God.”
On his reception Rev Newton said: “The people of Long Sutton warm, kind and friendly. There is a real sense of community.”
