Morgan John Lewis … lived in the New Inn region of Monmouthshire and, after the disruption, preached to the small flock that gathered there. The fellowship increased greatly when the evangelical Anglicans, who could not abide the unevangelical ministry of the Llanfrechfa clergyman, joined them. As a result a chapel was built, with a stable attached to it. This was in 1751. But the members were not able to receive communion. Their consciences would not allow them to attend the services of the irreligious clergy in the parish church, and they did not wish to join the Nonconformists. In their dilemma, they sent two messengers to Daniel Rowland asking for advice. He, having listened to them and considered their case seriously, advised them to call Morgan John Lewis as a minister, with prayer and fasting, and he added: ‘The prayer of faith will do him more good than the hands of any bishop under the sun.’

His advice was accepted by the New Inn congregation. All the members met together. After reading passages of the Word, singing and praying, the preacher testified to the articles of faith, and the church raised their hands to show their acceptance of him as minister over them. One of the elders then stood up, and in a most serious and deliberate way pronounced Morgan John Lewis as the minister for Christ over the New Inn Church, receiving the care of the Church from the Lord.

This ordination, the first among the Methodists, caused much excitement. Churchmen condemned them with much bitterness, as they considered that to administer the sacraments without Episcopal ordination was a work of sacrilege and blasphemy. Nonconformists condemned them just as bitterly, in that no other ordained minister had taken part in the ceremony. Morgan John Lewis and the church at New Inn had more open views – views closer to that of the New Testament – as to the nature of ministerial ordination.

Morgan John Lewis laboured there for a further fifteen years, with much success. The whole locality around New Inn was affected by his ministry.  Many came to listen to him from places up to fifteen miles away.[1]

This is how church history records one of the foundational moments in the history of the fellowship at New Inn, near Pontypool. Though this event took place in 1751, there is good evidence that the fellowship itself began in 1710, and so, New Inn Congregational Church, as it now is, has this year been celebrating three centuries of God’s faithfulness to His people in the village. A series of events have taken place, beginning with a day of prayer and fasting, and including a number of anniversary preaching services. The highpoint of these was a weekend in May where Andrew Davies preached at services attended by a number of village folk, as well as the Lord Lieutenant of Gwent, the local MP, the mayor, and a number of councillors. Other events organised included a church history evening and an evening involving the local school. In September the church, in conjunction with their neighbouring fellowship at Noddfa, Abersychan, held a mission led by Mike Mellor of Bournemouth. This is the latest of a series of such missions in recent years.

In the eighteenth-century the village consisted of just a few farms and cottages built around the public house from which the community takes its name. New Inn is a very different place today, with approximately 2,300 houses, sandwiched between Cwmbran and Pontypool. With around forty-five members, the present fellowship seeks to reach out to these people, from its two bases, a chapel building on the southern edge of the village, the fourth such building on a site where Daniel Rowlands, Howell Harris and Morgan Lewis preached, and a more multi-purpose Sunday School Hall, built in the centre of the village to mark the church bicentenary, one hundred years ago. A weekly Tots and Parents Group and a Treasure Seekers Club for children has meant contact with many young families, and the church also leads school assemblies and regular services in the village nursing home. The village café hosts a quarterly evangelistic men’s breakfast, and there is a monthly outreach meeting for ladies too. Every opportunity is taken to bring the same unchanging gospel to the changing community.

Though, as with all churches with long histories, there have been many ups and downs over the three centuries, God has indeed been good to the fellowship at New Inn. There is good evidence that the church was affected not only by the eighteenth-century revival, but also experienced significant growth around those of 1859 and 1904. In recent times too, there have been tokens of the Lord’s blessing. In 1995, following two decades without full-time pastoral care and with declining numbers, the church stepped out in faith, calling Gordon Cooke, a student completing his studies at Bryntirion. Although there were only sufficient funds to support this ministry for two years, the Lord soon blessed, and fifteen years later the church continues to support the pastor and his family. The pattern of weekly expository and evangelistic preaching at the two Sunday services, and a midweek Bible study discussion, have proved a blessing to many. In these years too, good links have been built up with other gospel causes in and around Gwent’s Eastern Valley, and with a number of small pastorless Congregational churches which New Inn is able to regularly supply with preachers. Interest in worldwide mission has also been stimulated, and New Inn, along with two Evangelical Congregational causes in England, now financially and prayerfully backs a reformed Baptist work in Tirana, Albania.

Encouraged by God’s provision for these developments, in 2009 the fellowship took a further step of faith by appointing a Pastoral Trainee, Andrew Toovey, on a three year programme. Though Andy’s training takes in all aspects of ministry, his main responsibility is for evangelistic outreach, where he heads up the door-to-door team in its village visitation programme. Leaflet drops every Easter, Christmas and Harvest for the past fifteen years have produced little fruit, but the church carries on sowing the seed praying that a future generation will reap in its fourth century! Other initiatives to bring the gospel to the unchurched have been introduced. One of these is a monthly ‘Ask God’ event, where questions that people pose on the doorstep are dealt with using a multi-media approach. It has been good already to see some encouragements from this.

For the most part, however, New Inn is like the ‘old inn’ of the Christmas story. It has little room for the ‘Word made flesh who dwelt among us’ (John 1:14). Like many churches across the Principality we cry to God to send His Holy Spirit to empower the preaching of His word, and bring new life to men, women and children. The fact that God has kept the light shining in New Inn for three centuries surely means that He is not done with the village yet! Please join us in praying that He will yet do a great work in our village again.

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[1] John Morgan Jones & William Morgan The Calvinistic Methodist Fathers of Wales Vol. 1 pp. 333,334, translated by John Aaron, (Edinburgh, Banner of Truth, 2008)