Merrylands Baptist Church is a church located in Merrylands in NSW. It is a member of the Baptist Union of NSW & ACT.
Our vision
Building a healthy community of believers from all backgrounds who are passionate about following Jesus.
Our three core values include:
Being Christ Centred
Being Relationally Committed
Being Mission Focussed
Safe Church Policy
We’re committed to partnering with parents and providing meaningful, welcoming and fun experiences in high quality, safe environments.
We want to ensure that when children and young people interact with the ministries and activities of Merrylands Baptist Church (MBC) that they feel safe, physically, emotionally and spiritually. The NSW government has introduced ten safety standards for organisations that include children and young people. We are committed to implementing these standards continuously in our community.
Every leader and volunteer holds a valid Working With Children Check and we use strict screening procedures. We have a process for children and young people, leaders and volunteers to be able to report any concerns they may have, in a timely and appropriate manner, including reporting concerns to the relevant authorities.
Training is provided to our leaders and volunteers to understand their responsibilities, to ensure that MBC is a safe place.
If you have any concerns regarding the safety of a child or young person at MBC, or any other concerns about safety, please inform Pastor Bob Dennis or one of our other Safe Church Concerns team members Jon Terry or Rae Goth.
Our History
HISTORY OF BAPTISTS
The first Baptist churches came into being in Europe over 400 years ago as part of the Reformation movement which swept that continent. The first Baptists came to Australia in 1831. Today there are about 65,000 members in Baptist churches in Australia and many more adherents. Each local church is autonomously self-governing, but link together with other churches to form a Baptist Union in each state, which in turn forms the Baptist Union of Australia. There are fraternal links through the Baptist World Alliance with almost 40 million others in a worldwide family, which exists in most countries of the world.
FOUNDING PRINCIPLES
- Freedom of worship according to one’s own conscience
- Baptism of believers only
- Each believer’s direct access to God
- Liberty
- Voluntary association of believers
These beliefs and practices were regarded as so radical at the time that many who held them were martyred.
MERRYLANDS BAPTIST CHURCH
In 1901 Merrylands Baptist Church began as a preaching station of Parramatta Baptist Church. In 1930 the Merrylands Baptist church was officially formed with 21 members and in August of that year a number of people were baptised. The church was pastored by college students and grew steadily. In 1945 it had its first full time pastor, continued to grow, and acquired its first manse. By 1968 as a result of the leadership of Pastors John Curtis, Darcy Taplin and others, the church building had been enlarged to seat over 300 people for worship and all aged Sunday school and the building was converted into a two level multipurpose building. There were many activities for all ages and the church flourished, providing training for college students and support for overseas missions. By 1990 the local community was becoming more diverse through immigration, impacting on the growth of the church. At this time the church adopted a more contemporary form of worship and openness to a greater involvement of women in ministry. It joined other local churches in outreach to 5 high schools and multiple primary schools. To grapple with the challenge of an ever changing community the church adopted a vision in 2015 to embrace the diversity within the community and in 2018 appointed an Oversight Team to lead the church towards that vision, ‘To build a healthy community of believers from all backgrounds who are passionate about following Jesus.’
