Our History

It was on this day that our founders and the first pastor met at Wellcroft House, Bellfield, the home of James Walker and resolved to form a church.

For a time they met in members homes but on Sunday 1st of May they met for the first public service which was held in the small upper hall of the Conservative Association.

The first 6 deacons were elected on the 11th of May. They consisted of the 5 founders and John Robertson, owner of the Star Foundry.

Sunday services were held at 11:30am and 6:30pm.

An application to the Baptist Union of Scotland was made in August 1887 and the Union Committee made a unanimous decision of acceptance to the Council. Peter Mackintosh and James Walker served as the first delegates.

On this date the first service was held in a building formerly known as “Auld Licht Kirk” but for many would be known as their home church for the next 55 years.

The building was gifted to Kirkintilloch Baptist Church by the South Church of Scotland. This was in part due to the Presbytery not being willing to give them a new minister and being unable to continue as a corporate body. One condition of the gift was that they be allowed to use the church for public worship of God and religious education, one which the Baptist Church readily accepted!

In these 5 years the church saw an exponential growth in membership compared to previous years, going from from 236 active members to 317.

Many people came and left the church over this time but beyond the plain statistics of membership was the powerful testimonies of people who came through difficult experiences and have come to know the love of Christ through the authentic worship and personal caring of the church.

There were many important events over these years as 1981 saw Norman McNeish succeed Tony Bennett to become treasurer, 1983 saw Dr Tooth resign as secretary after 9 years service succeeded by Tom Mayo and 1984 saw Muriel appointed part-time Secretarial Assistant to deal with the growing amount of correspondence and paperwork.

This date saw the completion and opening of a two phase project to develop the premises. The developments cost £155,610 (£539,205 in 2021) and saw three small halls refurbished, a fully equipped kitchen, toilets, storage facilities and the church office all provided during this period.

The development also included a new bookshop ran by part-time manager George Cooke before demand meant the position could be offered on a full time basis. Many in our congregation and community will be able to share fond memories in the book shop over the years and is now the location of our Christians Against Poverty and Foodbank offices.

3 years later, in 1987, the church celebrated it’s Centenary year reflecting on the 100 years of history that had gone before it. See if you can spot any familiar faces from the image on the left!