An active Baptist church based in North Glasgow.
Membership and general information
We are a large and vibrant church in the heart of Kirkintilloch with a membership of around 300 and many more in our Sunday congregation.
We hold our morning service at 10:30am. The whole church family start together and then crèche, children and youth teaching groups take place. Worship is contemporary in style and biblically based preaching is considered a central part of the worship service.
We have a youth focused evening service every Sunday, overseen by our Youth Pastor Rob Fraser Binns. This can be more experimental in style, with evangelistic and apologetic service features.
We have a thriving children’s and youth ministry which includes weekly activities as well as annual events such as the children’s holiday club, youth weekend away and day events/outings.
The church has an ever-growing “office” team, and is open 5 days a week, as is our community café next door: “Greenhouse”. There are currently 20 paid members of staff and hundreds of volunteers who all support God’s work here at KBC.
The church has both Elders and Deacons who are elected every five years at present.
Overview of the local community
Kirkintilloch is a town 10 miles north of Glasgow city centre. Within Kirkintilloch is an area called Hillhead, which is one of the most deprived areas in Scotland. In contrast to this, Lenzie is a small town attached to Kirkintilloch which is more affluent and many of our congregation are from there. As such, you can start to understand that our community and church is a very unusual mix of all backgrounds and this needs to be embraced and catered for.
We have a strong relationship with the local council through our major involvement in the canal festival and through the amazing work of the East Dunbartonshire Foodbank which is based from our church. We also have strong links with the local community through many groups that run from our church building (namely recovering addicts and support groups)
The church runs many activities for those inside and out of the church, e.g. “Toddlers” is a strong pull for those in our community. It runs twice a week and often has a waiting list. Every second Friday night, , the church building takes on a different feel, being filled by our Friday Night Lighthouse Youth Club. Our children’s and youth team are also engaged in the local primary and high schools.
During the week we have a popular café that serves breakfast, drinks and lunch. It is a wonderful way to be part of the community while serving our community.
Our church building is situated at one end of the main street in Kirkintilloch which is at the heart of our community and our community is at the heart of what we do in the church.
Church life as it is now
Many years ago the church underwent a major review which resulted in the re-structuring of multiple groups that support our vision into 10 hubs. Each hub has a deacon and an elder on them and are overseen by one of the ministers. The hubs are; Local Mission, World Mission, Prayer and Spirituality, Music and Worship, Life long learning, Authentic Community, Children, Youth, Pastoral Care and Seniors.
These hubs are the heartbeat of the activities and outreach that happen from our congregation:
Activities and organisations
There isn’t a day that something is not running within and out with our church walls.
· Our Church runs a Trussell Trust foodbank that is open 3 days a week from our church building. There are three other locations for distribution within the East Dunbartonshire area which are managed by our Foodbank manager.
· We have a part time member of staff who runs CAP debt counselling with a team of volunteers and we also run a CAP job club with volunteers too.
· Toddlers Tuesday/Friday
· Children’s holiday club
· Friday Night Lighthouse youth club
· SU groups, assemblies and chaplaincy work at local primary and secondary schools
· Youth housegroups midweek for each secondary year-group
· Youth residentials: weekend away and summer festival
· Greenhouse, a seasonal youth focused discipleship event.
· Hub, trustee, safeguarding, deacons and elders’ meetings
· Church lunches and breakfasts
· Seasonal courses: Freedom in Christ, Network Course, Marriage Course, Alpha, Nua
· For women: monthly meet up in a local restaurant, weekly ladies casual chat, ladies bible studies, mums and toddler bible study, Swish ( clothes swap event), Refresh well being and support group
· For men: monthly prayer breakfast, men’s curry nights, new men’s fortnightly meeting
· Weekly pre-service prayer meeting, mid-week ‘try praying’, monthly morning prayer meeting
· Various walking groups, occasional film nights, ceilidh evenings
· Mid -week Seniors service and lunches
· Around 60 % of our congregation attend a weekly small group for bible study. These small groups play a part in pastoral care of the congregation although there is also a pastoral care system in place headed up by a minister, part time pastoral worker and their team.
The list could go on!
Following covid, the Leadership are really challenging how we “do Church” and so we are definitely in a period of change. We are open to the Holy Spirit’s leading in all we do.
Church vision for the future
Our vision statement at KBC is Growing Disciples Who Love Jesus
In Christ we are…
ROOTED in God through His Word, nourished by His Spirit.
ESTABLISHED in God through faith, united in community.
EMPOWERED by God through prayer, responding in worship.
FRUITFUL for God in character and mission, branching outwards.
We support these four areas through the work of our ten hubs.
Our values
Some of the things that we value most include;
The centrality of Christ and the authority of the Bible.
Being open to those around us regardless of their situation or beliefs; sharing with them the love of God and the life-changing gospel in the hope that they will grow as disciples who love Jesus.
We are a member of the Evangelical Alliance and are aligned to their Basis of Faith.
If this excites you then do get in touch to find out more!
