Mendlesham Green Baptist Church is made up of a small community of people from a range of ages and different walks of life. Our services are fairly traditional in style but seek to be relevant to daily life. All are welcome to come along, whether you’re used to going to a church or have never been to a service in your life. We hope to provide a warm welcome, and everything in the service will be explained as it happens so there is no embarrassment about not knowing what to do. Children are also very welcome. At the moment we’re not meeting in our usual building, but don’t hesitate to contact us to find out up to date information on where and when we’ll be meeting this coming Sunday.
What do we believe?
At the heart of our church is Jesus Christ, who the Bible describes as being “full of grace and truth” (John 1v14). Jesus is full of grace – he came to bring us undeserved joy! We naturally reject and rebel against God in many different ways. However, Jesus lived and died that those trusting in him can have a restored relationship with the God of love, both in this life and the next. Jesus is also full of truth – he reveals to us what no-one or nothing else can. It is Jesus who reveals who God is, why we’re here, why this world is in such a mess, the dire consequences of rebellion against God and how all things will be restored. As a church community we are passionate about loving Jesus, trusting in him alone for our salvation, telling others about him and following his example.
Our “articles of faith” are outlined below for a more technical outline of our core beliefs.
Articles of Faith
Since it is through the Grace of God that we have been able to give ourselves to the Lord and also to one another, we recognise our responsibility to make a declaration of our faith and practice, in a way that will bring honour to the Great Head of the Church – the Lord Jesus Christ – knowing that “ with the heart one believes to righteousness and with the mouth confession is made to salvation “ (Romans Chapter 10 v.10)
1. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old & New Testaments are the Word of God and the only and sufficient rule of faith and practice.
2. We believe that there is but one only living and true God; that there are three persons in the Godhead – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are equal in nature, power and glory; and that the Son and the Holy Spirit are as truly and properly God as the Father.
3. We believe that before the world was created God chose a certain number unto everlasting life, whom He predestined to be adopted as children by Jesus Christ. This was the outcome of His free grace and according to His good pleasure, a plan that was made with the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity past.
4. We believe that God created the first man Adam, after His own likeness and in His image, upright and holy, an innocent being capable of serving and pleasing Him. However Adam sinned and the guilt of his sin was imputed to all mankind bringing them under the judgement and condemnation of God.
5. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, having assumed the office of Mediator came into this world as a man, died a substitutionary death on the cross to make a propitiation for the sins of His people and to satisfy the righteous demands of a Holy God.
6. We believe that eternal redemption which Christ has obtained by the shedding of His blood is special and particular, that is to say that it was only intentionally designed for those whom God had chosen
7. We believe that justification is only by the imputed righteousness of Christ, received by faith, not by any endeavour or personal achievement and that the full and free pardon of all sins, past, present and future is only through the blood of Christ according to the riches of His grace.
8. We believe that the work of regeneration, conversion, sanctification and faith, is not the act of man’s freewill and power, but by the mighty efficacious and irresistible grace of God. Nevertheless it is the responsibility of all men to repent and believe the gospel – and their failure to do so is further evidence of their sinful condition.
9. We believe that those who are chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son and sanctified by the Holy Spirit shall certainly and finally persevere; so that not one of them shall perish, but shall have everlasting life.
10. We believe that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust; and that Christ will come a second time to judge both the living and the dead, when He will exercise perfect judgement on the wicked and introduce His own people into His kingdom and glory, where they will be for ever with Him.
11. We believe that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinances of Christ, to be continued until His second coming and that the former is absolutely requisite to the latter; that is to say, that those only are to be admitted into the fellowship of the church, (and to participate of all the ordinances in it) who upon profession of their faith have been baptised by immersion in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
12. We believe that the singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs is an ordinance of the gospel to be performed by believers.
A more detailed statement of faith can be found in the 1689 ‘Baptist Confession of Faith’ and/or in ‘We Believe’ – the 1966 Grace Baptist Affirmation of Faith.