Biographical Sketch of Graham Ingram

Introduction

Graham Ingram was the third pastor of Lusaka Baptist Church from 1969 to 1976. He played a leading role in seeing the church change from primarily serving the white community and expatriates to an indigenous church with a major outreach to students in schools, colleges and the University of Zambia. Graham was born in 1936 in Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, England and passed on to his eternal reward in 2017 in Cape Town in South Africa.

Ingram grew up in Worksop and lived with his parents and had a sister called Joan. His family was not Christian. He was educated at the King Edward VI Grammar School in Retford, Nottinghamshire. Graham records that he left school two years early partly because his parents felt it was time to get a job and earn some money. Also he had no confidence that he could go further and gain university entrance. Later he studied at the City of Sheffield Teacher Training College and Spurgeon's College in London for pastoral ministry.

Conversion

Graham became a Christian in 1955 when he was eighteen years of age and doing compulsory military service in the Royal Air Force. A few months before he had been strongly influenced by two young men who were preaching in the street in Laindon, in the county of Essex. He could not get their words out of his mind. Graham resented their attempts to convince him that he was a sinner who needed salvation. Graham sought to become a better person but resisted the change that would make it possible. He tried to buy God off by saying the Lord’s prayer regularly and occasional church attendance at Wesley Chapel. Through the words he had from the street youth preachers in Laindon the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin. Six months later after meeting some more Christians, and seeing Christ in them, he knelt by his barrack room bed - in front of 21 other soldiers – and surrendered to Christ.

 He describes his conversion in these words: “I’d taken the step of faith, which was so simple but so very difficult for stubborn human beings. Prevenient grace had accomplished its work. I was now experiencing saving grace. I was conscious that God was no longer up there. He was living inside me but also changing me.” Opposition to his conversion was mostly from his family. When he told his family about his conversion thinking they would be impressed and follow the same path, instead they were horrified that they now had a religious fanatic under their roof. “It was the beginning of a period of opposition, sometimes very intense, that would last for nearly ten years” Graham says.

Call to Ministry

From early on in his Christian life Graham was aware of a call to preach. Graham says that his call to the ministry was not particularly dramatic but it was very clear. The call to ministry came in April 1958 following a conservation with Peter Brown where he was asked “Graham, have you ever thought of going into the ministry?” This is what compelled Graham to respond going into the pastoral ministry. To that end, Graham applied to study at Spurgeon’s College in London. In the early years the college carried the cost of his studies. His family had rejected him because of his faith and determination to preach. He was not allowed to visit his home for four years. God supplied all his financial needs. In the latter part of his theological education he received government bursaries.

Pastorate of Lusaka Baptist Church

Ingram became pastor of Lusaka Baptist Church in January 1969. He came to know about the need for a pastor at Lusaka Baptist Church through a letter that he got from Roger Pearce, a close friend he got to know during student days when they worked together on the beach missions in Cornwall, England. At the time that Roger Pearce wrote this particular letter to Graham Ingram, Roger was working for Scripture Union in Zambia. In the letter as Roger was concluding, he mentioned a near empty Baptist Church building in the centre of the capital Lusaka where most of the congregation had left after independence.

The letter went on to say that the church was strategically located to reach students from the newly opened university (University of Zambia) and secondary schools. “Many of the first well educated generation of African young people were feeling isolated from the village and township churches. A spiritual vacuum was developing. Here was an opportunity to influence the future leadership of the country” the letter ended. Graham Ingram felt this was it!

Ingram says “the negative things did not matter a jot. I was excited, faith had been stirred and God had spoken.” The call to become pastor of Lusaka Baptist Church was made to Graham Ingram within a few weeks after further steps that included listening to a an audio cassette of one of his sermons. Ingram accepted the call. He sailed out from Southampton, England to Lusaka, Zambia via Cape Town, South Africa on 30^th November 1968 on a journey that took him more than a month to get to his destination.

Ingram was inducted by Rev R H Philpott on 5 January 1969. Ingram found that the church was really in a low condition. “There were only seven actual members left, all white” Ingram writes. All seven left the country in the first year. Ingram was aware of the need to have a church that was multi-racial, open to blacks which had previously not been the case. Ingram notes that he was totally without experience of working with black people and had no knowledge of African culture. Some missionaries also told him that he was wasting his time thinking he could build an English-speaking black church as it would become more indigenous in their language and culture once the rest of the white population had gone. However, some people began to arrive from overseas who had a different outlook and got to know some of the indigenous people.

Ingram notes that the first year of his stay at LBC saw no significant growth. He was very depressed and lost and far away from home. At the time his plans were to stay a minimum of three years and then leave. In his second year he had a big burglary at the manse. These events and others tested his calling to serve God at Lusaka Baptist Church. Obedience to God and the comfort of God’s word reaffirmed his commitment to serve in Zambia at the time.

Ingram’s ministry played a great role in making the church burst its seams in terms of membership of a large multi-racial church. He was influenced by the preaching of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the Minister of Westminster Chapel in London and systematically and passionately expounded the Scriptures. Graham pioneered evangelistic outreach to various secondary schools such as David Kaunda Technical Secondary School, Munali Secondary School, Kabulonga Boys Secondary School and the Kamwala Secondary School and also at the University of Zambia.

Many students came to Christ through the special evening services for students. One example of a student saved at this time was the late Dr. Duncan Mugala, a student at David Kaunda Secondary School, who got saved in 1972 after listening to the preaching of Graham Ingram at LBC. Dr. Mugala later became an elder at Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka and Central Baptist Church in Chingola. Graham officiated at the wedding of Joe (sixth pastor of LBC) and Alice Simfukwe in 1975.

The membership of LBC grew to over 200 in those years. This led to the extension of the church building. Ingram preached from Romans, Ephesians, Revelation and topics such as Revival, Prayer, “People who met Jesus”. John Symons who was the fifth pastor at Lusaka Baptist Church says “On Sundays we attended LBC where Graham Ingram was ministering. It was a powerful time, thrilling to see so many young Zambians coming to Christ and growing in the faith”.

The work amongst the youth continued also to grow. The year 1972/73 was fruitful for the Lusaka Baptist Church, as many conversions were experienced,  32 people were baptised and a total of 51 new members joined, making a total of 131 members. Extension of the church became a necessity. In 1975, the regular Sunday attendance was over 300 people, half black, half while and a few Indians. The membership of LBC reached 212 people. Joe Simfukwe was chosen to be the first Zambian elder of LBC and later became its pastor. 

An urgent call to Wynberg Baptist Church in Cape Town made Ingram leave earlier than planned. Ingram led the church into adopting 'open membership' to allow evangelicals, who did not necessarily hold Baptist views, to become members, because of the multi-denominational attendance of LBC. The church nevertheless remained firmly Baptist.