David Sharpe

David Sharpe is a local preacher in Cockermouth.

Local Preacher training in the early ‘60s in Grantham was minimal, but I emphasise, enough for me, a history graduate. There was little by way of mentoring. I was attached to an older Local Preacher who heard me rehearse a couple of my services, but I never witnessed him preach nor did he me.

The major challenge was getting to most of the large number of chapels in the then Grantham Circuit. My own transport was a bike and, most often I’d to beg a lift, (no telephone) with another local preacher who was driving towards or past the chapel at which I was planned. I was in my third circuit before I had a car. Significant too was the selection of hymns. Often I had to have the ones the harmonium player could play – the four town chapels with organs and an organist were a luxury. As the Revd Ewart Shepherd had suggested, as a teacher, preaching was relatively easy; more demanding was composing the congregational prayers & it took a few years before I became confident let alone competent.

It’s been of enormous satisfaction that in leading worship and preaching I’ve been proclaiming what I’ve understood to be the will of God and in small ways I’ve been encouraging the development of His kingdom. More practically, it’s the researching of the sermon that I enjoy, the bible study especially, linking my abiding interest in history to my most recent profession – that of an adviser/inspector of Religious Education.

I came on Full Plan after the two years training in 1966 and now in 2024, in my sixth circuit, I’m still one of Mr Wesley’s preachers, still taking a few services each quarter.