John Bailey, who served as the minister of Greenstead Evangelical Free Church in Magnolia Drive for 33 years, passed into God's presence on Thursday, February 3rd 2000, after a long illness courageously and patiently borne.
Those who knew John personally will very readily acknowledge that he had always striven to serve God wholeheartedly as a committed Christian. Early in his Christian life, John responded to God's call, serving as a preacher on the local Methodist circuit of churches and in the "Come Back to God" campaign. In 1965, when Greenstead Evangelical Free Church first came into being, he became its first minister. Before the church building was ready, services were many times held in his house.
The debt that the church owes and many individuals feel that they owe, under God, to John is so great, but only eternity will reveal its fullness. John, in his humility and desire that God alone should be glorified, would wish to recede into the background whenever any mention was made of what he had done. He gave the credit for everything to the God who had made him, saved him and led him through every day of his life. We can thank God very much for such a friend, such an example as a Christian and such a loving and self-sacrificing pastor, who preached and lived out the Bible's teachings so faithfully, cared deeply for us and sought the very best for us at all times.