Many of my readers will already be aware that Spurgeon’s College, founded 169 years ago, closed on the 31st July 2025. This sad news has been widely reported:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don’t intend to add anything further to these news reports, except to note what a tremendous privilege it has been to serve alongside such an incredibly gifted, supportive and hard-working team of people. Instead, I want to look back briefly at my 5 years and 7 months as academic librarian and note some of the implications the closure of the College has for the future of Theology on the Web<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019 I was made redundant after working for a local Christian charity for 19 years. In October of that year I unexpectedly received a call from the Chief Operating Officer at Spurgeon’s College inviting me to consider becoming their new librarian. Despite having never worked in a physical library before, the interview panel agreed that my 20 years experience in developing and running a large digital library demonstrated that I had the necessary skills. Just three months after starting work and finding my way around the collection of 70,000 books and 340 journals, the entire College was sent home as the COVID lockdown started. I often tell people that being asked to provide students the resources digitally was like Brer Rabbit being thrown into the briar patch! For me it was yet another confirmation that the Lord had put me at Spurgeon’s for a purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of my favourite parts of the job were my explorations in the library stack. This archive held the older books in the collection, including books from the personal libraries of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (complete with signatures)<\/a>, F.B. Meyer<\/a> and W.Y. Fullerton<\/a>. In addition, the stack held an extensive collection of rare Baptist magazines, dating back to the early nineteenth century. Most of these, together with hundreds of other books from the stack, are now available online:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week’s news came as a terrible shock, especially on top of the huge increases in the both cost of living and web-hosting over the last two years. However, as I indicated above, I have been in a similar situation before and can see how the Lord worked through it to put me into the right place and am confident that He will do so again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have found the work of Theology on the Web<\/strong><\/em> useful to you over the last 24 years and feel that you would like to help to ensure its continued operation, there are a number of ways in which you can help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow me on Substack. <\/strong>Although I have been active on Facebook and Twitter for many years and have thousands of followers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get these platforms to share what I have written. There are over 7,000 members in my Theology on the Web group, but typically one of my Facebook posts is only seen by around 200 of them. Going forward I am increasingly using Substack, which allows me to share directly with my followers via email. Click here to find out more<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider supporting Theology on the Web on a regular basis<\/strong>. I really dislike having to make emergency appeals to keep the websites running. To make such appeals a thing of the past, Theology on the Web<\/strong> needs regular support! You can do this via Patreon<\/strong> <\/a>or Buy-Me-A-Coffee<\/strong><\/a>. One-off gifts can also be made through PayPal<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My thanks to those who have supported and encouraged me to continue this work over the years – it has been greatly appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\nMy Time at Spurgeon’s College<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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How You Can Help<\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n