Metropolitan Tabernacle, London - Spurgeon (1860)
Raising the money to build the new church took a long time. The original budget more than tripled. Spurgeon went around the country preaching to raise money. They bought the land that had an abandoned hospital on it. Building was able to commence because someone guaranteed £20,000 in costs, although he said that he expected to only contribute £50 in the end. Over a million people contributed to the building of the church. Before it was complete, the first meeting was held on August 21st, 1860. This was in the middle of the greatest revival the United Kingdom had ever seen, and it started to impact London about the beginning of 1860. Spurgeon told the people he wanted to open the church with no debt, and on its completion in March 1861, the debt was paid; the money having come from every type of individual and from all over the world. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was quite a unique project, but it did not stop some of the newspapers from taking a swipe at Spurgeon.
Spurgeon was a man whom people had faith in. I guess the loyalty he engendered was due to the purity of his character. All his career he had leaders around him who never caused any disunity; how many leaders can say that?. He was known as the 'Governor', but he never led over people; he always led with people, consulting his team on all important matters. At one point, he called his deacons "lovable, active, energetic, warm-hearted, generous men." He was often in awe of the devotion of his deacons. The lead deacon once responded to him, "Yes, dear Pastor, but it is because we have such absolute confidence in your leadership that we are ready to follow you anywhere. You have never misled us yet, and we do not believe you will ever do so." No wonder they had such an amazingly successful church! One day, when Spurgeon was ill, he got to worrying about the finances of the church, even though there was no need. A deacon, who was with him realised he needed some assurance, so he went home, collected all his stock certificates and the funds he had available and, putting them on the bed, told his pastor that he owed everything to him, so he could take anything the church needed from what he owned.
Back in 1855, Spurgeon led a young man to the Lord. This young man was a gifted preacher, but Spurgeon thought that he needed some training, so he committed to financing his tuition and support. This put quite a strain on his finances, particularly when he got married, but he was already thinking about financing another young man who showed a lot of potential. After training the young man soon found a pastorate, and Spurgen took on another pupil. Friends heard of this new venture and contributed towards it so that there were soon over twelve students. When the Tabernacle opened, the 'Pastors College' moved to the basement of the building. Spurgeon aimed to train men with proven giftings; they had to show they were good at preaching and that God wanted them in ministry. There had to be a definite sign of a Divine call. Some of the students paid for themselves, but poverty was never a bar to admission; nor was a lack of education, even someone unable to read would be admitted. "Have you won souls for Jesus?" was the primary question asked of applicants. Spurgeon looked for men who loved Jesus and loved people.
On one occasion, an expected source of finances dried up, so Spurgeon paid the bills out of his own money, until he had none left to give. But Spurgeon was a man of faith; he believed that prayer would make a way in any circumstance, so he prevailed (travailed) in prayer and immediately £200 was deposited for the College, and then more money came in. After some years, the College had outgrown the Tabernacle, so a separate building was built, and on opening in September 1874, it was fully paid for. At the time of Spurgeon's death, nearly nine hundred men had been sent out from the College. It was calculated that up to 1880, the graduates had baptised 39,000 people. Quite a legacy!
Additional Information
The Tabernacle was burned down in 1898 and bombed in World War II, only the portico and the basement survived. It was rebuilt in 1957 to smaller dimensions.