User:Ghillebodach/Rev. Douglas McBain

Douglas Geoffrey Thomas McBain was an English Baptist Minister and pioneer of Charismatic Renewal in British Baptist Churches.

Born in suburban Surrey of Scottish descent, Douglas McBain studied Theology at London Bible College (now known as London School of Theology) where he gained a London University BD degree. After a short ministry in Walthamstow he was called to Wishaw Baptist Church in the Scottish industrial heartland of Lanarkshire. it was during his time in Wishaw that he became acquainted with a number of other ministers, mainly Church of Scotland but also some Baptists and others, who were experiencing an awakening of "Charismata" - supernatural "gifts of the Holy Spirit." During this time McBain became a friend of Tom Smail who was then ministering in a neighbouring Church of Scotland parish.

Douglas McBain was later called to Lewin Road Baptist Church in Streatham, South London, where he exercised a long and fruitful ministry. He encouraged the church to embrace the best of Charismatic Renewal, while continuing to deliver well-resewarched and well-presented preaching and teaching from Scripture. McBain developed friendship with a wide range of Christian traditions including Roman Catholics and the "New churches", while remaining loyal to his Baptist roots by continuing to be active - and campaigning - within the Baptist Union of Great Britain. He was one of the original founders of a broadly Evangelical pressure group called "Mainstream - Baptists for Life and Growth" around 1978. He intervened from the floor of the Baptist Union Assembly, challenging the Baptist Union's willingness to accept without comment annual statistics showing a decline in numbers within the Union. As a result, the Union commissioned a working group to make careful study of the health of its Churches (Published as "Signs of Hope"). A few years later, the Union began to be more proactive in promoting evangelism and growth.

In the early 1980's, McBain resigned the pastorate of Lewin Road to embark on an itinerant ministry of teaching, preaching, and encouraging younger leaders. During this time he worked under the auspices of Manna Ministries' trust, but remained an Elder at Lewin Road.

He believed in the early 1980's that the day of mass evangelistic crusades was waning. In that belief, and with a passion for genuine revival and a belief in the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, he saw in the ministry of John Wimber with its emphasis on church growth through "power evangelism" a viable way forward. Therefore McBain invested heavily in bringing Wimber and a large team of associates and helpers to a teachgin confernece on healing in London's Wesminster Central Hall in the autumn of 1983. AAfter the teachgin conference small teams spent a few days in churches acrosss London and beyond, teaching, midellign and enablign local people to engage with Wimber's model of healing ministry.