Copyright © 2011 Ho Hip Productions

Southdale Baptist Church celebrated its 50th Anniversary in April 2004.   It all began as a lunchtime Bible study group for students that met in the lounge of the Chinese School in Doornfontein.  An Afrikaans teacher, Mrs. Rabie, was instrumental in this humble beginning and a number of young Chinese people came to know the Lord.  Mr. and Mrs. Putney then were involved and soon the group needed to move to a bigger venue. The Central Baptist Church in Joubert Park very kindly gave them the use of their church hall.

 

The Chinese Baptist Church was constituted in 1954 and the Rev Arthur Song became its first pastor in 1963.  The present building was bought from the Afrikaans Baptist Church in 1975.    Succeeding pastors have been, the Revs. Harry Campbell,  John Longstaff, Nigel D’Aubrey, Eugene Wiseman and Graeme Anderson.  The Rev. Michael Ho is the present Pastor.  The Church acknowledges the invaluable assistance of Moderators when without a Pastor, especially the Rev. Dr. Chris Parnell and the Rev. Paul Jones.

 

The Name of the Church changed in 1979 to its present name.  This was necessitated because English became used more frequently than Cantonese and other nationalities began attending the Church.  New immigrants from Taiwan began identifying with the Chinese community but due to their limited grasp of English, eventually moved to Edenvale where a new Church was started and Mandarin is still the language medium.