At Jersey Baptist Church, we’re passionate about showing God’s love and telling His story. We didn’t all come from a storybook Christian home. Those who worship here represent differing political views, backgrounds and life experiences. We care for everyone, including people with different abilities, and people of different ages and stages of life. Whether you’ve made mistakes or haven’t been to a church in years (or ever) we invite you to join us. You matter to us and we want you to have a life-giving relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ.
THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
The Gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ is our foundation at Jersey Baptist Church. A relationship with Jesus is the only thing that can transform a person’s life in an eternal way with God. We’re dedicated to reaching diverse communities and presenting Christ’s message so that every person in Jersey has a chance to understand it, believe it and experience the restoring power of the Gospel.
“I am not ashamed of the message of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” – ROMANS 1:16
WE ARE EVANGELICAL
The term “evangelical” comes from the Greek word euangelion, meaning “the good news” or the “gospel.” Thus, the evangelical faith focuses on the “good news” of salvation found in Jesus Christ. Evangelicals are distinctive in four primary ways. First, evangelicals believe that our lives need to be transformed through a “born-again” experience and through the life-long and life-changing process of daily following Jesus. Evangelicals also express their faith in the good news of Jesus Christ by being at the forefront of missionary and social reform efforts. Evangelicalism is also marked by having a high regard for and obedience to the Bible as the ultimate authority in life. Finally, evangelicals stress the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as making possible the redemption of humanity.
ELDER LED AND CONGREGATIONAL
We believe Christ has vested the authority of his church in the members of the local congregation, especially as they are represented in a local body of elders whom they appoint. Our goals are to: live our daily lives in the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ and joyfully follow him; equip each believer in our community to share the gospel with family, friends and neighbours; reach out to our community with tutoring, job training, medical advocacy and food; and love, pray for and fully support our missionaries. Here at Jersey Baptist Church, we are “Jesus ruled, elder led, and congregationally accountable.”
The elder team provides both leadership and oversight for the vision and direction of our church, and is made up of one member of our staff team and three church members.
INTERNATIONAL
As one of the business centres of the world, Jersey is blessed to welcome thousands of international workers to its shores and over 14 countries are currently represented at Jersey Baptist Church.
BAPTIST
We recognise that baptism has been practised with faithful intentions in different ways in the history of the church. All Christians agree that baptism symbolises unity with Christ as the head of the church and also the commitment of the church body to the one being baptised. Here at Jersey Baptist church we believe that faithful Christians can have different views about baptism and that these secondary issues should not exist as a source of disunity.
With that said, we believe that baptism is best understood as both the seal and symbol of the covenant of grace. It represents new life in Christ and death to old ways of living and thinking. Therefore, baptism is best reserved for those who can maintain covenant faithfulness with the body of Christ, that is, believers who are bearing the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.
DOCTRINAL BASIS
Jersey Baptist Church is affiliated to the FIEC, a network of over 500 churches across the UK and Channel Islands that all hold to the same Doctrinal Basis. You can read it in full by clicking the link below.