Alconbury Independent Baptist Church

Alconbury Independent Baptist Church | AIBC

Passion for Christ compassion for the world

On 2 December 1979, in the home of George Pett, the Pett, Ballard, and the Rev. Howell Williams families met to form the Alconbury Independent Baptist Church. Services alternated between the Pett and Ballard family homes. On 6 January 1980 the church started meeting in the Village Hall in Little Stukeley. The church was formerly organized on the 27th of April 1980 with 16 charter members.

In 1981 the church, needing more room, was able to meet at 33 Ermine Street, Little Stukeley. By the end of 1981 attendance was averaging just below 50 in the Sunday morning service.

During the latter part of 1982 the church got permission to extend the building and to move a portable building on the property. Attendance grew to an average of 75 in the Sunday morning service and in September the decision was made to look for new property. Mrs. Pennington offered the site at 37 Ermine Street, Little Stukeley. On 21 October 1984 the church voted to buy the property at 37 Ermine Street for 78, 000. 00. The portable building was moved to the new location and the morning worship attendance grew to 125.

In 1987 the church began the long road to build a church building on its property. In October 1988 ground breaking took place for the present building. Sunday Morning attendance averaged 175. 1989 saw the completion of the auditorium and fellowship hall and a dedication prayer was made for the new building in April. Work then began on the Sunday school wing.

With the bases cutting back, the attendance of the church declined to 110 by the end of 1991. Since then the church has seen attendance fluctuate but today the church averages about 90 in the morning worship service.

We believe the best is yet to come! Please come and visit with us. A warm welcome awaits you.

Our Core Beliefs:

I. OF THE TRUE GOD
God is the Creator of man and the entire universe and upholds all things by the Word of His power. We believe also in the Trinity - The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. . God in His person is all-knowing, all-powerful, present everywhere at once, and unchangeable.
1 John 5: 7 – For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

A. Person and Work of God the Father
We believe in God the Father, perfect in holiness, boundless in love, infinite in wisdom, measureless in power. He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men; He hears and answers prayers and he saves by faith those who come to Him through Jesus Christ His Son.
Psalm 147: 5 – Great is our LORD, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

B. Person and Work of God the Son
We believe that Jesus Christ was sinless in His nature and life, and infallible in His teaching; that He accomplished our redemption, making atonement for our sins through His substitutionary death on the cross according to the Scriptures; and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead.
Acts 4: 12 – Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

C. Person and Work of God the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person and that He indwells the believers at the moment of salvation and is their constant source of strength and power; that He seals, guides, teaches, comforts, sanctifies, and helps the believer; and that He witnesses of and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 14: 16 – And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.

II. OF THE SCRIPTURES
We believe that the Holy Bible was written by Holy Spirit-controlled men who were supernaturally inspired and that it is without error. We recognise that the King James version is a trustworthy, accurate, and reliable English translation, and we confidently use it in the pulpit and in Sunday School classroom.

Psalm 12: 6-7 – The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

III. OF SATAN
We believe in the personal existence of Satan, the Devil, who was created a perfect angelic being; who wilfully led a host of other angels in rebellion against God before the world began; who is the author of sin, sickness and all false religions; who is the accuser of saints and tempter of all men; and who shall be destroyed in the lake of fire with his followers at the end of the millennium.
Rev. 20: 10 – And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

IV. OF CREATION
We believe in the Genesis account of creation as neither allegory nor figuratively, but a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate creative acts of God without any (organic or theistic) evolutionary process
Gen. 1: 1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

V. OF THE FALL OF MAN
We believe that man was created in innocence under the law of his Maker; that by his own free choice and wilful decision fell into sin and there by incurred not only physical death, but also spiritual death which is eternal separation from God. Man in his sinful condition is under just condemnation without defense or excuse.
Rom. 5: 12 – Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

VI. OF SALVATION
We believe that salvation of sinful man is wholly by God's grace and not by man's works; that Jesus Christ came into the world to make full payment for sin by His shed blood, substituionary death on the cross, and bodily resurrection from the grave; that man must personally repent of his sins and accept Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour to receive the free gift of eternal life; that man can be saved only once and that there is no other way of salvation for sinful man.
Acts 20: 21 – Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

VII. OF SANCTIFICATION
We believe that sanctification is the divine setting apart of the believer unto God accomplished in a threefold manner; First, an act of God, based upon redemption in Christ, establishing the believer in a position of holiness at the moment he trusts the Saviour; Second, a continuing process in the believer as the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to his life; Third, the final accomplishment of this process at the Lord's return when the believer will be removed from the presence of sin.

VIII. OF SEPARATION
We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Saviour and Lord; and that separation from all worldly and sinful pleasures and practices is commanded by God.
1 John 2: 15 - Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

IX. OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS
We believe that Christ is our Great High Priest and through Him every born again person has direct access into God's presence without the need of a human priest; that the believer has the right and responsibility to personally study and interpret the Scriptures guided by the Holy Spirit.
Heb. 10: 19 – Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

X. OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS
We believe that God is Sovereign in the giving of all His gifts; and that the gifts of evangelists, pastors and teachers are sufficient for the perfecting of the saints today; and that speaking in tongues (languages) and the working of sign miracles gradually ceased as the New Testament Scriptures were completed and their authority became established.
1 Cor. 13: 10 – But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is part shall be done away.

XI. OF THE CHURCH
We believe that a local church is a congregation of saved, baptised believers. We hold that the local church has absolute right of self-government and that Christ is the one and only Head and Superintendent of the Church
Eph. 4: 23 – For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Saviour of the body.

XII. OF THE ORDINANCES
We believe there are only two ordinances given to the local church by Christ; Believer's Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and that both these ordinances have no saving merit; and that as Christ gave these ordinances to the local church, that the local church alone has the authority to administer them.

XIII. OF MISSIONS
Because all men everywhere without Christ are lost and bound for eternal punishment, and because men cannot believe in Him of whom that have not heard, we believe that we are debtors to all men and have the responsibility of giving them the Gospel. As a local church, we must support by prayer and financial aid those who go out that are sound in doctrines and have like faith and practice to represent us in other parts of the world.

XIV. OF HEAVEN AND HELL
We believe that Heaven and Hell are literal, eternal places, prepared of God; that every person has a soul of eternal duration; that heaven is a place of eternal joy and happiness for those who are saved by the grace of God; and that it is a place of God's preparation for His people.
We also believe that those who do not accept God's grace and remain in their lost condition shall abide in hell forever, eternally separated from God.

XV. OF THE RAPTURE AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS
We believe in the imminent, pre-tribulation, pre-millennial return of Jesus Christ for his church, and that at that moment the dead in Christ shall be raised in glorified bodies, and that those living in Christ "shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump" (I Cor. 15: 52) and shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
We also believe that the Tribulation, which follows the rapture of the Church, will be culminated by the Revelation of Christ, with His Saints, in power and great glory to sit upon the Throne of David and to establish the Millennial reign.