Our Vision
Our vision can be summed up in one simple statement – our desire is to be disciples, and to help others become disciples of Jesus.
Leadership
Our Pastor, John Craib, leads our Ministry Team.
We have eight deacons on our Leadership Team – Kirsty Buchan, Peter Candlish, Alex Carduff (Church Secretary), Allison Ferguson, Louise Hastie (Treasurer), Don McKie, Lorna McLean and Rhona Stevens.
The day-to-day running of the church is overseen by our Administrator, Joe McCrum.
Pastor: John Craib
I have been the pastor at Bearsden Baptist Church since 1997. I was born in Aberdeen in 1958, grew up in Kilmacolm, went to school in Paisley and attended university in Aberdeen. It was during my time as a student that, out of curiosity, I bought a Good News Bible and began to read. When I reached the book of Daniel I finally abandoned my teenage atheism for a faith in Jesus, though I was not baptised as a believer until 1989. For 14 years I trained and worked as a Chartered Accountant in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Liverpool and Glasgow.
After two years back in Glasgow and having attended a Baptist church since the return from England, I started to explore Baptist ministry and trained at the Scottish Baptist College in Glasgow for four years before being called to Bearsden Baptist Church. I am married to Carina and have five grown up children and four gorgeous granddaughters
Beliefs
- We believe in the existence of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – one God in three persons.
- We believe that out of his love for us, God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ to earth.
- We believe in His virgin birth, perfect life, His death and bodily resurrection, whereby he paid for the sins of humanity.
- We believe that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the world, that He will return to the Earth, and that through belief in Him, all can inherit eternal life.
- We believe in the in-dwelling power of the Holy Spirit, who strengthens and enables us to live out the Christian faith, and who reveals God’s will to us.
What is a Baptist?
Baptists are Christian believers with certain distinctive beliefs:
- We believe in the centrality of Jesus Christ in our lives, and that through Him, we can draw near to the Father and receive from Him the Holy Spirit.
- We believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, and that its teaching is central to the Christian life.
- We believe that all Christians are equal, and we strongly support the the right to religious belief free from interference or oppression by states and governments .
- The most distinctive feature of a Baptist church is our practice of baptising believers by fully immersing them in water, as the early Christian church did.
- We believe that the act of baptism symbolises a person’s death to their previous lifestyle and their rising up to newness of life. Thus baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the outward sign of a believer’s faith.