Where no-one’s a stranger twice.

Mosspark Baptist Church – Glasgow

History of the Church

A legacy left to Glasgow by the Industrial Revolution was row upon row of tenements.  These were often so close together that light and fresh air were almost excluded.  Squalor and disease abounded.

In a determined effort to improve conditions, it was decided that in the new housing developments to be built for servicemen coming back from the Great War, each house would have its own garden.

 

Mosspark was the first of these “garden suburbs” in Glasgow.

 

There were a few Baptists in the new area and the foundations of a Baptist Fellowship were laid.  Meetings were held in a home for some six weeks early in 1924 until the house could no longer accommodate all who wished to attend.  They moved the services to a small nearby hut and subsequently moved temporarily to a local school.

 

Mosspark Baptist Church was formally constituted in May 1924 and on the 25^th May 1924 the first 35 members were enrolled.  The original church building was opened on October 3^rd 1925.

 

The Church provided a positive evangelical witness in the area down through the years until 1991 when a Special Church Meeting was held to consider the future.  The text for the meeting was Isaiah 54 verse 2: “Enlarge the place of your tent.  Stretch your tent curtains wide.  Do not hold back, lengthen your cords.  Strengthen your stakes.”

 

The outcome of the meeting was the sense that God was speaking to us, telling us, among other things, that the time was approaching when we should “enlarge Mosspark’s tent.”  And so, after much deliberation and planning, on 25 April 1998 a Special Church Meeting was held at which it was agreed that we demolish the original building and build a new church.  The last service was held in the “old” church on 19^th August 2001 and, like the founding members of our church we went “back to school” – in our case we met for a time in Mosspark Primary School whilst our old building was demolished and a new enlarged Sanctuary was built.

 

On 25^th May (obviously a significant date for us) 2002 we celebrated the opening of our new Church Building.

 

It is good to look back – and to see how God has worked in the life of the fellowship over the years.  But we recognise as a fellowship that the key is that we are not to worship the past but to worship Christ; not to conform to tradition but to conform to God’s will; not to please ourselves and follow prejudices but above all and at all times to see the mind of Christ for His Church and to act boldly in accordance with His divine requirements.