About Us

LEADERSHIP | HISTORY | VISION | BELIEFS

LOVE IN WORD AND ACTION

Teaching and Pastoral Care Team

Our incredible Teaching and Pastoral Care Team looks after our church members and helps guide our ministry to the wider community.

Peter Holford

Associate Pastor

Fiona May

Staff Worker – Kids and Connections

Geoff Hinch, Toni Welch, and Chris Guppy

Elders

ENCOURAGEMENT AND DIRECTION

Volunteer Administrative Team

This lovely bunch gives their time and expertise to support the Teaching and Pastoral Care Team in their ministry to the church and community.

Maureen Baker

Office Coordinator

Rob Dewhurst

Church Secretary

Tony Ewen, Nicole Coburn, Jennie Hegarty

Diaconate

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Our Locations

Armidale and Surrounds

The history of Baptists in Armidale

The first Baptist Church in Armidale was built in 1882 on the corner of Brown and Allingham Streets. In the 1880’s Baptist churches were also built at Saumarez Ponds, Breelong, and on Lakemount.

In 1902 the Black Mountain Baptist Church was built next to the Manse that had been erected a few years earlier. The current Armidale property, on the corner of Rusden and Jessie Streets, was purchased by members of the Black Mountain congregation in 1918, and the current Armidale building was opened in December that year.

The history of the church through the last century is chronicled in the book, A Burden For Outreach: The Story of the Baptists of Armidale and the New England, NSW (2018).

The 21st century church is being built on a framework of small Life Groups where everyone has the opportunity to be nurtured and supportive of one another, enabling a dynamic ministry to the local community.

“WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US” 1 JOHN 4:19 NIV

Our Vision

We are a church bringing God’s hope and love to the Armidale District through practical caring and helping people grow in relationship with Jesus Christ.

“I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart.” (Psalm 9:1 NIV)

As a local church, we are Jesus’ community and exist to honour and celebrate Him. Our highest calling is to worship God and know Him personally. Sunday worship services are just the start! We seek to worship and honour God in all we say and do as a church. We celebrate Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and also acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s work within us. Worship for us is a lifestyle more than an event or church service.

“Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed and restored.” (James 5:16 AMP)

Our call to be Jesus’ followers is also a call to be deeply connected to others. We value open and honest relationships with God, each other, and people in the wider community. It is only as we have authentic relationships with each other (and God) and can share openly in love and confidence that we find true freedom to be the person that God planned us to be. Within our church family, we grow in love, acceptance, and forgiveness primarily through Life Groups and Pastoral Care.

“In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing things well.” (Romans 12:6a NLT)

God calls us to follow Him in caring for vulnerable people in our world, just as Jesus did in His ministry on earth. The Bible repeatedly tells us how deeply God cares for disadvantaged and neglected people. By knowing God personally, we discover purpose in how we are equipped in our own unique ways to minister to others.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19a NIV)

As a church, Jesus calls us to make disciples by encouraging people to know God and use their gifts for Him. We can make a difference in the lives of those we share with into eternity.

Core Values and Beliefs

We are thankful that God has clearly spoken through the Bible so we can be certain of what we believe as we live for Jesus Christ. Our Core Values and Beliefs determine our character as a church community.

There is one God who is eternal, personal Spirit. He is infinite in power, wisdom, holiness and love. He is triune (three-in-one) in essential being and revealed to us as Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the second person of the triune God and is eternally one with God the Father and God the Spirit. Jesus is the accurate expression of God the Father’s person and glory. To become man, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, so that two whole and perfect natures, the nature of God and the nature of man, were united in one person; truly God and truly Man.

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the triune God and is eternally one with the Father and the Son. The Spirit was sent by them into the world to achieve the divine purpose in the world and the Church.

The Bible (also called The Scriptures), consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is the infallible Word of God. It was written by holy men of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

Man was made in the image of God and for fellowship with Him. By transgression of God’s command, he fell from fellowship with God and his nature was corrupted. As a consequence all people are spiritually dead under Satan’s dominion and control and subject to God’s wrath and condemnation. Therefore, apart from God’s grace, people are helpless and hopeless.

In order to redeem humanity from the guilt, penalty and power of sin, Jesus Christ became man and died a sacrificial death as our representative substitute. By His resurrection, God’s acceptance of His atoning death was demonstrated. This atonement is sufficient for the whole world but effective only in those who receive it. The sinner is justified and reconciled to God, not through any personal merit but solely on the basis of God’s gracious gift of salvation in Jesus Christ, received through faith.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is necessary for the acceptance of God’s provision of salvation. The Holy Spirit convinces sinners of their sinfulness, leads them to personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and so brings them to spiritual birth as God’s children and to fellowship in Christ. Working within the life of believers the Holy Spirit makes real the presence of Christ, witnesses to their relationship with God, leads into all truth, bestows gifts for effective service and produces graces for holy living.

The Church is the people whom God has set apart to be His through their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. All regenerate persons are members of the Universal Church of God which takes local form whenever groups of believers unite for worship, fellowship and service in accordance with Bible principles. All believers are called to a priestly ministry in the offering of spiritual sacrifices and sent into the world to be witnesses. God calls individuals to positions of oversight and leadership or to special ministries. The Church recognises such by ordaining Pastors, commissioning Missionaries, appointing Deacons and other leaders, and following New Testament practices.

Baptism is an ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a public declaration of a person’s faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. In accordance with New Testament Scripture it should be administered only by total immersion which symbolises the believer’s identification with Christ in death, burial and resurrection, the remission of sins and the believer’s dedication of himself to God to live and walk in newness of life.

Our Beliefs come from the 1979 Statement of Faith of the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT.

Church Policy

Download our Safe Church Policy here.

Write to the Safe Church committee here.