The Gospel
Our church exists because of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. News means that something has happened and the news that created our church is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There was a man named Jesus who lived about 2,000 years ago in Israel. He lived a perfect life. He never did or said or thought anything wrong. Jesus has shown us through his actions how human beings are supposed to act, how we are to love God and love our neighbor. Jesus was able to live this perfect life because he was God in the flesh and Jesus revealed himself to be God through the many miracles he performed.
Even though Jesus lived a perfect life, people hated him. They were jealous and skeptical and angry at Jesus. They falsely accused him and sentenced him to death on a cross, the most shameful and painful punishment in their society. On the cross Jesus took the punishment we deserved for our sins. He suffered as a substitute, receiving what we ought to receive for all the bad things we do in life.
After he died and was buried in a tomb, on the third day Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection proved that he is truly the Lord God and was seen by many witnesses. If we believe that Jesus is Lord and God has raised him from the dead, our sins will be forgiven and we will have everlasting life.
Our church exists because we as individuals have heard and believed the good news about Jesus. Our church exists in order to bear witness to the good news by serving Christ, our community, and one another.
If you have questions about the gospel, please contact one of our pastors.
Our Church Covenant
We the members of our church have all covenanted to the following:
Having been led to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and upon profession of that faith, having been received into the fellowship of this church, we do now in the presence of Almighty God and this congregation most solemnly and joyfully enter into the covenant with one another as members within the Body of Christ.
We promise therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit to walk together in Christian love, to support the public worship of God by regular attendance, to contribute regularly to the support of our local ministry and for the spread of the Gospel throughout the world. As part of our Christian commitment, we will seek to know and to follow His will in our everyday lives.
We also promise that, as God shall enable us, we will follow His principles as revealed through the Holy Scriptures; remember one another in prayer; help each other in sickness, trouble, and sorrow; be slow to take offense and quick to seek reconciliation; and continually to live to the glory of Him Who has called us out of the darkness into His glorious light.
What’s a Baptist?
Baptist is a type Christian church in the Protestant tradition. Like other Protestants, we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, the final authority for all that we believe, and that salvation is through faith in Christ alone. Unlike some other Protestant churches, baptist churches are democratically governed, which means rather than a bishop, priest, or elders making decisions for the church, all the members of the church vote on major decisions.
Most distinctively baptist churches do not baptize infants. Instead, we practice believer’s baptism which means we baptize only those who can attest to their own personal belief in Jesus for salvation. We also practice baptism by immersion which means that when we baptize, we dunk people under the water rather than just sprinkling it. We believe this practice is attested to in scripture and the history of the early church. Today many churches which do not have ‘baptist’ in their name also share this practice.
Although being baptist is now associated with the South and the Bible Belt, New England was once one of the most baptist regions of the country. Baptists founded several New England colleges such as Bates, Brown, Colby, and Gordon. Baptists founded New England Baptist Hospital in Boston and helped create many charitable institutions. Even today a member of our church serves on the board of the Elliot Hospital in Manchester reflecting the longstanding connection between churches and other charities in our area.
Adoniram Judson, one of the first American missionaries to the world, went to serve the people of what is now Myanmar with the support of the First Baptist Church of Salem Massachusetts and other New England baptists. Although New Hampshire is now one of the least religious states in the country, churches in our state wrote one of most popular and influential confessions of faith for baptist churches in America: the New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833). Baptists have a long and rich history here in New England, including our church which has been here in Manchester since 1837.
All that said, many people in our church did not grow up baptist. Some grew up methodist or pentecostal, others grew up Catholic or in no church at all. Whether the baptist tradition is familiar or not, we invite you to come and see.