Can you work from home?

(Or are you a teacher or doctor?)

Willing to relocate for the sake of the gospel?

The Guardian, Nov 2016

The narrative in Stranraer is that the churches are closing and the young people aren’t interested.

By God’s grace that’s starting to change.

In the last 20 years, the majority of churches in Stranraer have closed - most after a tragic legacy of not preaching the gospel. Our region is on track to have the lowest church attendance in Scotland by 2025. God in his grace has been at work in our congregation however, bringing in new converts and changing the pattern of slow decline. We saw our first full-time minister in almost 30 years ordained in 2015, followed in 2022 by the first ordination of a ruling elder in 49 years.

God is regularly bringing new folk through our doors. We are excited by the opportunities that we have, but they have also left us stretched. With many in the congregation being relatively new Christians, we really feel our need of mature Christians to join us and help disciple those God is bringing in.

(By mature we basically just mean someone who has been part of a church for 5-10 years - whether a young adult, couple, family, retired person etc!)

Up till now, limited employment options in the town itself (other than for doctors & teachers) has meant that moving here to support the church hasn’t been an option for many. However, with the advent of working from home, things are starting to change. Living in Stranraer and working from home (perhaps with a day a week in Glasgow or Edinburgh) is now a realistic possibility for many.

Would you prayerfully consider moving here (temporarily or permanently) to give us a stronger base from which to reach out?

There are many things we can’t offer you, but we can promise a front-row seat in what God is doing in people’s lives.

“All over the country many little churches are on their last legs. If they close – and it seems as if the vast majority will in the next few years – then we will be abandoning whole communities to something far worse than even the Taliban. We will be leaving them to the tender mercies of Satan, sin and secular values which take people to a lost eternity. The last witness to the Lord Jesus Christ will go out like a light…Let’s not pull the plug. Let’s find those places that need the gospel and go there”. - John Benton, Pastor’s Academy, 2021

“It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few” - 1 Samuel 14:6

“Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut” - Revelation 3:8

Oh, and if you’d rather a Baptist church (and won’t let us convince you otherwise!), check out our friends at Stranraer Baptist Church.

“You don’t fill one church by emptying another; but by compelling the people in the highways and hedges—that is, those who are in no church—to come in. Raise the temperature, natural or spiritual, in any part of the town, and the whole town will be the gainer.” - J. P. Struthers

If you are not in a position to move, but would like to make a regular or one-off donation to the work here, please contact us.