Membership and Mobility

Abstract

"On July 4th, 1821, William Upton was ordained to the ministry and commenced his pastorate at Dagnall Street ·Baptist Church, St. Albans. On March 25th 1865 William Upton died at the age of 69 still the minister of the same church. For44 years he served at Dagnall Street. During those years he rejoiced with parents at the birth of children and when the children grew up he shared in the joy of their marriages and rejoiced in turn with them at the birth of their children. The people ofSt. Albans of those days grew up where theywere born, worked their lives through in the city of their birth and died there. Many of them scarcely travelledat all beyond the confines of the city and the villages round about. . Society tended to be static. It is not so now. Those were the dl'J.YS of the local Baptist church with its static membership .and its structures to match. Things have changed. Of the present membership of Dagnall Street over half have joined in the last decade and only about 15 per cent of the members have belonged for more than twenty years"