Hundreds attended Emmanuel Christian Fellowship in Birkenhead to celebrate Derek’s milestone
God keeps calling me back after 70 years in ministry
When Derek Green sang ‘Here I am, wholly available’ he had no idea that God would take him so completely at his word. After an amazing 70 years in the ministry Derek is leading yet another church, this time in Birkenhead. He talked to James Hastings
Like any student, Derek Green was concerned when, on his way to church one Sunday morning, the Principal of the Elim Bible College pulled him aside.
At just 17, Derek was only seven months into his year-long course at the college which was then located in the London borough of Clapham.
As he walked nervously beside his lecturer, a dozen scenarios raced through Derek’s mind. Had he forgotten to hand in a theological paper or, worse still, had he completed it, and it was now adorned with a large red ‘F’ for fail.
Finally, the Principal revealed the reason for wanting a word with the young student: “We need you to go to Mansfield on Tuesday to take over the church there,” he explained.
“There’s been a moral matter involving the leadership. It will only be for two, maybe three weeks until we can appoint a senior pastor.”
Derek was not only the college’s youngest student, he was the youngest ever to enrol. With three months of his course still ahead of him, he was being asked to take on the role of pastor in a very challenging situation.
Derek, now 87, clearly recalls that early Sunday morning in 1954: “To say I was stunned would be a major understatement,” he laughs.
“Of course, I agreed even though I had no idea what lay ahead. I felt I was being thrown in at the deep end, but I knew the Elim Church leaders would not have asked me to do this if they didn’t think it was God directing them.
“The Mansfield Elim Church had recently hit the front page headlines of the daily newspapers when the minister had run off with the treasurer’s wife, leaving about 100 bewildered church members wondering what their future would hold.
“When I turned up at their door a few days later, I don’t know what they must have thought of me. A young, fresh-faced teenager been sent to pastor them. However, they could not have been more welcoming.
“For me, the appointment was a challenge and in 70 years of ministry I have learned that whenever there is a challenge, you must always rely on God.”
The three-week posting turned into one lasting three months. Derek never returned to college but that didn’t halt his training for the ministry.
In fact, Mansfield added to his education in ways he could never have imagined as a student. Like all new ministers, he soon realised a pastor required a set of skills which could only be learned on the job. As well as theology, Derek soon became an expert in tasks such as painting and decorating, buying property and designing new church buildings, to name just a few of the numerous tasks he has undertaken over seven decades.
“There are many things for which Bible college cannot train you,” he says.
“You have to learn as you go along. I’ve always tried to think outside the box. I’ve been blessed and helped by many church members who were always willing to come to the pastor’s aid, even one as inexperienced as I was.”
In the 1950s, it was common to appoint pastors on short stays. After Mansfield, Derek was sent to Nelson in Lancashire and then to Sowerby Bridge in Yorkshire where he met his future wife, Betty. She was the church organist and youth leader.
“In those days, if a minister started courting a young lady in his church he was moved away, so I was sent to start a brand-new Elim church in Weymouth which was about 250 miles away. I suppose distance dating is an excellent way to test if the relationship was in God’s plan.”
Two years later, Derek and Betty were married, and the very next day the couple returned to lead the church members in the renovation of a disused cinema soon to be a new church, one of many they would start from scratch.
As the members could not support a full-time minister, Derek worked part-time in WH Smith. With money tight – maintaining a strict budget being another learned skill – he and Betty frequently slept on mattresses on the floor so they could let their bedrooms to holidaymakers to pay the flat’s rental.
Five years in Weymouth were followed by eight in Pontypridd: “There we ran a weekly children’s meeting at the church and on two housing estates, with buses bringing over 100 children to the Sunday school each week.”
While serving in Bradford in 1971, the very old church building in an equally run-down area was set on fire by vandals.
“The church rallied around,” smiles Derek. “The members had such a strong faith, they working most evenings and Saturdays on a new church and soon a brand-new building was built on one of the main roads in the city.”
“I have believed in God since I was four years old. I was eleven when I was filled with the Holy Spirit, a real Pentecostal experience, which strengthened my belief and faith in God at a time when many youngsters waiver.
“When I was sixteen, ready to leave school I wasn’t sure how I could serve the Lord. Then I saw a film about Billy Graham and knew then God was calling me to be a pastor.”
A preaching trip across America led to Derek introducing a revolutionary ministry to Elim - a full-time nursery which provided proper children’s facilities which were then used to accommodate the thriving Sunday school at the weekend.
“After a lot of discussion with the local council they eventually agreed to this first-ever day nursery in a church. This was later followed by day nurseries in many other Elim churches in later years which have proved to be a useful bridge builder in communities.”
Moving to Chelmsford, Derek was confronted with a thriving church in a very cramped building, and again the members rallied around to help build what was at that time the most expensive building Elim had ever built.
“There were facilities for a 60-place day nursery providing multiple rooms for the Sunday school which attracted more than 100 children each week.
“This was probably the most challenging and busy, but amazing time of my ministry. Two other ministers were added to the team, and the church more than doubled, with people becoming Christians, and developing their own talents and ministries.”
It was during this time that Derek was asked to become the part-time Elim National Youth Leader for three years followed by election to the National Leadership Council along with a number of other roles including the Elim Housing Association and the Elim Ministers’ Pension Fund.
“Betty and I went all over Europe with the youth ministry. We’d travel by minibus and get accommodation in church halls and in people’s homes. We led services each night in different churches. It was an exciting time.”
Derek was asked for his input when the Elim Leadership met to discuss the future of the Movement’s weekly magazine, The Elim Evangel. He knew this small black and white journal was losing the readership battle against more modern and colourful Christian publications.
Derek suggested launching a revolutionary full-colour magazine called ‘Direction’ – the same magazine in which this article appears.
“We started life as a 28-page free magazine attracting advertising to help pay for it. With a circulation of more than 20,000, it was the first of its kind in the country. The editorials, advertising and much of the distribution was all done from my home. After a few years the work was moved to an office in the newly transformed one-time Methodist church, which now housed the growing congregation in Wallasey, with another minister working with me on the magazine and the church. The church members rallied once again, working all hours to renovate the derelict building into a multipurpose one, housing a day nursery and other community activities.”
Derek was Direction’s editor for 12 years. He saw the magazine launch one of the first song management programmes and promoted the use of video projectors to replace the overhead projectors, something that was revolutionary at the time.
In 2001 Derek and Betty retired to a quiet village in North Wales, but within months he was asked to be a part-time associate minister with Dave Cave the local Baptist minister, whom he had known for many years. He continued in that role for the next ten years, retiring again when Dave retired.
Derek and Betty moved back to The Wirral to be nearer to their family. Sadly, Betty developed vascular dementia, and Derek found himself becoming a full-time carer, along with increasing help from his family. During this period, Derek was only able to minister occasionally in a few local churches. Betty died in December 2000 and, at the end of 2001 the leaders of Emmanuel Christian Fellowship a local independent church found themselves in a crisis, with the minister and a large number of the congregation leaving to start a new church.
“After a lot of prayer and some very clear signs from God, I agreed to help them for six months. But, finding only about 20 faithful people left in the congregation, it became obvious that they would not be able to support a full-time minister for some time, so I agreed to continue for a while longer.”
After two years, at 87 years of age Derek is still there and has seen the numbers more than double and the congregation unanimously deciding to become a part of the Elim Network.
“After more than 70 years in ministry I was anticipating a restful retirement, but God has seen fit to call me back into action time and time again,” he says. “When the Lord first called me he promised to be with me, and he has been. He did not say for how long, so I guess I have to accept, and enjoy the fact, that I did not set an end date either! I have often sung ‘Here I am, wholly available, as for me I will serve the Lord’ and I have found that God often takes us at our word but always gives us the ability and strength to do what he asks of us.”
This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.
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