ABOUT US
It's a great privilege to minister to the people here. It's a small congregation of Bible-believing Christians, and we meet together each week to worship God. What this means primarily is that the people listen to the Bible being read and have it explained through preaching. There's prayer to God and the singing of hymns. We also have Bible studies where everyone can contribute their thoughts and questions. We meet more informally once a month for an activity. All the time, we're trying to encourage each other to keep focused on God and obey him.
It’s not all about what goes on inside the building, though. It's a primary job for the church to get the message out about Jesus Christ as Saviour. To do this, we speak to people in the local area and distribute literature. We tell them that Christ died for sinners—how he took the punishment for all his people’s sins when he hung on a tree at a place called Calvary, 2000 years ago. Our message is clear: all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Our sin must be punished, and this penalty is eternal. To those who are rightly disturbed by this, the good news is that, if they submit to God in prayer and trust Jesus, they can have all their sins written off—no matter how bad or numerous. As if that wasn’t enough, God promises eternal life to those people! What a God of grace.
Why don’t you visit us? Whether a Christian already or someone wanting to know more, we’d love to see you. If you have questions you need answering first, drop me a line and I'll do my best to answer them. If you're nearby, I hope to see you soon.
Paul
Pastor Paul Forrest
What we believe
As an outline of Christian belief, we endorse the ancient Apostles' Creed. We also hold to those doctrines described in the Canons of Dort—sometimes called "The Five Points of Calvinism". However, we maintain that scripture alone is infallible, and even the best outline of belief ("confession of faith", "creed", etc.) doesn't have the authority of scripture, and no man has the right to demand that believers subscribe to any such man-made document. As a summary of some of our beliefs, we'd describe ourselves as:
Bible believers
We are fully convinced that the Bible is the inspired and infallible word of God, and is the chief authority in matters of doctrine and personal conduct. The Bible is at the very centre of our private and public worship.
Reformed
We think that the Protestant Reformation was a blessed event in the history of God’s Church, and we adhere to the doctrines of sovereign grace that the Reformers keenly defended: that man is dead in sin—and therefore unable to save himself—and will remain that way unless the Lord moves graciously in the heart and brings about faith within him; and that God should be praised and glorified for every part of the process of salvation.
Baptist
We do not practice the baptism (or “christening”) of babies, but only baptize those who have repented of their sins, are trusting in Jesus Christ as their saviour, and are willing to publicly testify to their salvation. These requirements therefore naturally preclude babies and young children.
Evangelistic
We believe it is our duty to spread the message of the gospel widely. To that end, we conduct various types of outreach, where we communicate the good news of forgiveness of sins for all those who surrender to Christ. We also see it as our duty to baptize and nurture new converts and help them become disciples of Jesus.