About Us (New) — Life Branch Church

NOTE*: Maybe, get real picture for background OR picture of worship

Who we are

Note: Video here, either old video or new

Short Description of the Church

This is our WHY statement.

It defines our identity as a church.

Both to ourselves and to those who are encountering our church for the first time.

We recognize we are not perfect.

We believe life is better in Christ.

We want to show others the love we have received.

We want to live life differently, together.

Our church strives to be a safe space where we work through our doubts, hurts, and challenges together.

We experience the impact of life in Christ Jesus.

We are a community of servants.

We will practice serving each other inside and out of the church.

We learn and grow together as we serve.

We are an apprenticeship of love.

We choose to be real, relevant and authentic.

Christ is relatable to others because he is relevant to us.

Core Values

Life Branch Church is a community of believers who seek together to worship, to grow spiritually, to encourage and support each other and to share our experience of God’s love. We see ourselves as active members of the wider fellowship encompassed by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada and our local Association of Baptist churches. As A Community Of Believers We Value:

The Bible as central in its message of God’s redeeming love and as the authority for Christian faith and life.
Worship as an opportunity and a responsibility in our relationship with God. A diversity of individual and corporate worship styles and the power of individual and corporate prayer is honoured in our community.
Fellowship as a commitment to support each other across age, ethnicity, gender, abilities, economic and social status.
Evangelism as a mandate to proclaim the Gospel and to support Mission Outreach, through church planting at home and abroad.
Discipleship as the means of equipping for growth and Christian service, individually and as a community of believers. Ministries to children and youth are integral to our discipleship commitment.
Social Action as a Christ given example of compassion and love.

Our Beliefs

There is one true and living God, whom we can approach without dependence on a human mediator. He is the creator, preserver and sovereign of the universe. He is inexpressibly glorious in holiness and worthy of all honour, confidence and love.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our Saviour and Lord and He calls us to be His disciples and servants. He is the only means of salvation.
The Holy Spirit enables people to believe and to grow. The Spirit forms and equips the Church, leading people in their journey of faith.
The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are divinely inspired and are an all-sufficient guide for faith and practice.
The Church is the Body of Christ, expressing itself in worship; gathering in fellowship proclaiming the Gospel; serving God through deeds of love and mercy as empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church. We function autonomously and believe in the freedom of individual conscience.
We are called to a lifestyle of obedience to Jesus Christ, as Lord. This life in Christ is nurtured within a believing community and expressed in daily living.
We are called to practice Believer’s Baptism and to participate in the Lord’s Supper – two Ordinances of the Church. They are symbols of obedience and visible expressions of the Gospel, given to the Church. As we participate in faith and repentance, we open our hearts more fully to God. In baptism, the believer identifies with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we share in the Lord’s Supper we remember and celebrate the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary and His great love for us. The bread symbolizes His broken body and the cup symbolizes His shed blood, poured out for our salvation.

Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada

First Baptist Church, Dartmouth is proud to be associated with the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, which is made up of churches that voluntarily associate together because of their common faith in Jesus Christ. We are committed to the basic Baptist principles which form the basis of our fellowship together as Christians. CBAC is one of several regional bodies in Canada which form an alliance of churches.

Canadian Baptist Ministries

First Baptist Church, Dartmouth is a part of CBM, a global mission organization committed to sharing God’s love through word and deed. CBM believes that God brings healing to a broken world through local churches. With over 140 years of experience, CBM has seen that words and deeds intertwined in Christian community work together, to bear witness to God’s transforming grace.

Baptist World Alliance

We also belong to the Baptist World Alliance, a global movement of Baptists sharing a common confession of faith in Jesus Christ bonded together by God’s love to support, encourage and strengthen one another while proclaiming and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit before a lost and hurting world.

Life Branch Church (formerly First Baptist Church) has been building in faith for years!

The flyer shown above was inserted in our bulletin on the occasion of our 170th anniversary, in the fall of 2013. It shows a very condensed history of First Baptist Church, in the form of a timeline.