History & Beliefs

Yeovil Baptist Church's South Street facade
Yeovil Baptist Church's South Street facade

History

History tells us that, as a church family, we are first mentioned in the minutes of the meeting of the Western Baptist Association in Wells in the year 1656.

Our first home on the corner of South Street and Petters Way was a Barn which we used in the late 17th and early 18th century as our first Meeting House.

We are the oldest of the Free Churches in Yeovil.  Our current buildings were renovated in 2003, the tenth rebuilding or extension of our premises since the early days of the original Barn.

As a church family we also have a particular interest in a community of twenty flats for senior citizens in Stiby Road which we call Lockwood Court, named after one of our former Ministers the Revd Connie Lockwood.  Worship takes place in Lockwood Court on Sundays and Wednesdays.

For further information see ‘Baptists in Yeovil’ by Leslie Brook 2002 – copies available from the church or Public Library.
 
 

Belief

Baptists are part of the world wide Christian Church.  All Christians believe that God has revealed himself to us as the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Baptists are part of the Free Church Tradition in Britain – that is we don’t believe in a link between the State and the Church.  Every Baptist church is ‘governed’ by its members through something called the Church Meeting.

Baptists (as the name suggests) also practice Believer’s Baptism.  That means it is only when a person has made a decision to be a Christian that they are baptised.

That said, the Baptist Church here in Yeovil is always delighted to worship and work together with other churches in the town.  For that reason we are a member church of the Yeovil Town Centre Ecumenical Partnership (along with St John’s, Princes St URC, Vicarage St Methodist and Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Ghost).

Our church is part of The Baptist Union of Great Britain and the South West Baptist Association.

Here are some further Statements of Belief that we would affirm:
 

 

The Baptist Union Declaration of Principle

  • That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and that each Church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer His Laws.
  • That Christian Baptism is the immersion in water into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost of those who have professed repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who ‘died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again on the third day’.
  • That it is the duty of every disciple to bear personal witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to take part in the evangelisation of the world.

 

The Five Marks of Mission for the Church

as adopted by the 1988 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops:

   1. Proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom
   2. Teaching, baptizing and nurturing new believers
   3. Responding to human need by loving service
   4. Seeking to transform unjust structures of society
   5. Striving to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustaining and renewing the life of the earth