Who are We?

We are a community church, affiliated to the Baptist Union of Scotland but made up of people from many church backgrounds and none. For a number of years some members of the Inverness Baptist Church had prayed about a church plant in the Culloden area. In 1993 a group of those members resigned from the Inverness Church and joined with some others to plant the Culloden Baptist Fellowship. With numbers growing and a sense of growing excitement the Fellowship was formally constituted as a Baptist Church in August 1996 and was received into the Baptist Union of Scotland in November 1997.

In August 1999 Rev Jim Turrent was inducted as the first pastor of the church. Jim is from Glasgow and his wife Janey is from Fort William and teaches in Inverness . They have a little boy called Alasdair who was born in December 03. Prior to becoming a Pastor Jim was an engineer until he became convinced that God was calling him into pastoral ministry. He studied at the Scottish Baptist College in Glasgow before coming to the Highlands .

From a small beginning back in 1993 ‘CBC' has grown into a worshipping community of well over 200 people each Sunday morning. God has really honoured the vision of those founding members.

• To view our Constitution click on the link.
• To view our Church Rules click on the link.
• To view our Statement of Faith click on the link
• To view our Protecting Vulnerable People Policy and Guidelines click on the link
• To view our Leadership Team click on the link

We believe that God has planted our church for a purpose. That purpose is to glorify God through our lives and communicate the good news about the Lord Jesus Christ and is expressed in our mission statement. ‘To live for Jesus and bring others to Him.' We are;

Culloden – because this is the generic name for the area to which we feel called. But we also recognise that our mission connects us – not only with our immediate locality – but with our networks. Therefore, as a gathered congregation, we welcome the participation of people from the Culloden/Cradlehall/Smithton/Balloch conurbations and beyond.

Baptist – we are glad to be a part of the wider Baptist family in Scotland and this is our expression of being part of the universal church. Whilst sharing much of our DNA with other Christian denominations (with whom we have strong relationships locally) our main distinctive is believers' baptism. This means that we will only baptise those who profess faith in Christ. Because we would not wish to damage the consciences of others who may disagree with us we are what is called an open Baptist church. This means that those who have not been baptised as believers (but as infants) may still connect with us. (You may click on to the Baptist Union of Scotland website for more information on Baptist beliefs and identity)

Church – we believe in the importance of the local church because we believe that God's mission is through the church. We therefore encourage our people to be properly connected in membership for their safety and ours.

As members of CBC we have each come to a personal discovery of the authenticity of Jesus Christ and his message. We believe that he entered into our world to live the perfect life that we never could, that he died upon the cross to pay the price for our sin, and that he rose from the dead bring us new life and to rescue us from the judgment that awaited us. In our time at CBC we have seen a good number of people come into a living relationship with God through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to know more about becoming a Christian then there is more information at the end of this blurb.

Once again, thank you for browsing!

Jim Turrent
Pastor