Welcome to the website of Bristo Baptist Church in Edinburgh, Scotland. We are the second oldest Baptist Church in Scotland (founded 1765).

However, being old and long established does not mean that we are not moving with the times. We have lively modern worship celebrations and solidly Biblical all-age education on Sundays, and we meet as cell church and for prayer during the week.

We are bound together by the love of God and move together in the power of the Holy Spirit. You will be assured of a warm welcome if you come and join us in worship, whether you are just visiting the city or have come to stay for a longer period to work or study.

Now that you have visited our website, why not come and see for yourself? We pray that you will be blessed by what you read on this site.

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Developing Bristo ‘fit for purpose’: a ‘laboratory of resurrection’

In moving through the year 2009 the church is developing its life and witness in three key areas.

Healing Room
This is an invitation for people from the community to come to experience something of the healing that Jesus Christ brings to us. We invite people to receive prayer from us as Christians. We look for people to be blessed out of the experience and awareness of Christians regarding the presence and power of God active in the lives. We have a group developing this, and look to launch this before Easter 2009.

‘Beth Shalom’  evening service
We are developing our evening service as a ‘housde of peace’, so that p[eople can meet with the peace and presence of God ministered into their lives. Peace, presence, purpose and power ‘in Jesus’ name’ into our lives. And space for:

• Christian Meditation on God’s revelation to us in Jesus Christ, testified to in Scripture.
• Music & Song
• Dreams & Visions; poetry & prose
• Prayer & Ministry

All within a context of good order and accountability.

Journey

We want to encourage people to be read the Bible for the purpose it was written. The Bible is a motivation journal for living, steering us into the life of Jesus Christ. In the Bible we recognise three themes in what God is always about:

Developing                 - who we are and can become.
                                    The model and focus being Jesus. Our calling, as human bengs, to be the ‘Image & Likeness’ of God, reflecting the example of Christ and the goodness of God.

Liberating                   - us from self-defeating behaviour.
                                    Moving us out of cul-de-sacs and bad places into a life worth living. To understand and to share in the purposefulness of Christ. Embracing and expressing the Nazareth Manifesto.
                                   
Anticipating                - Our learning to anticipate God’s future. To have a deeper grasp of  what it means to live in and for the Kingdom of God.
Journey is our key at Bristo for understanding Christian faith. It is threaded through the preaching and teaching.  Emphasis will be made on the place of the Cell Group as a committed relationship cluster for discipleship, witness and mission.

Discipleship    – Christian leadership is found in those who model the attitude of Jesus Christ. Humility, service and obedience to God.  We are to be honest about the joys and the challenges of the journey – developing, liberating and anticipating’.

Witness           – ‘to live by the gospel of Jesus Christ and help the people to catch a sight of it...’.  Our cell groups are our base-camps for mission.

Mission           – is an expression of our lives as purposefully participating in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ; reaching out in His name to those beyond the church.