About us

We are Christian people and hold regular worship services which are traditional and reverent with hymns and prayers, and Bible based preaching. Our hymn book is New Christian Hymns and we use the New King James version of the Bible.

We are an independent church and the members themselves appoint Pastors and Elders to lead the local Church business and activity.

What do we believe?

  • We believe that all scriptures recorded in the Bible are Divinely inspired.
  • We believe there is but one God: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • We believe that all people are sinners because of the fall of Adam; and therefore need to be saved.
  • We believe that because God loves His people, His only Son Jesus Christ died for us to pay the price of our sin and this is all through God’s own Grace.
  • We believe that whatever the works of people, no matter how “good”, works cannot save; for Jesus Christ is the only Saviour.

The above is a brief statement of what we believe. We are Reformed Evangelical and our beliefs accord with the Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 which although not inspired is Bible based in its theology. To view please click here.

What is a Baptist Church?  

A Baptist Church is a Protestant Christian church that believes people should be baptised when they are able to make a personal declaration of faith in Jesus Christ. They are then baptised by immersion in the baptistry (a pool). We believe this complies with what Jesus taught us when He was baptised in the River Jordan by John the Baptist.

At the formation of the Church, the apostle Peter said “repent, and let everyone of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ”. These early churches all practised baptism. When certain churches started to be associated with the state and government somewhere around 280AD, the baptising Christians remained independent, but sadly, as the “official” churches of states became “established”, they persecuted the “non-conforming” Christians. All over Europe and Asia, massive buildings were erected to show the great power and authority of the established church which seemed to give them the right to execute and imprison the “heretics to true religion”.

From about the 4th century, Baptists became outcasts of religious society and whenever the chance arose these Christians were arrested and all their books burnt. Even in relatively modern times, people like Bunyan, Williams and others were subjected to persecution and imprisonment up to the beginning of the 1700′s. In many ways this is all past history,  but it does show why there is little historical evidence of the longevity of the Baptist Church. It only became a recognised denomination in 1641, however the baptist tradition is as old as Christendom itself.

A warm welcome awaits you at Waterside! We look forward to seeing you.