The Glasgow Church of Christ is a Jesus focused Bible-believing fellowship of Christians committed to making an impact in Glasgow for Christ through faith. We are a diverse and close-knit group of families, singles, students and youth from different walks of life united by our love for God and God’s love for us.
Our Church in the city of Glasgow was planted in 2001. We are affiliated with the ICC Missions family of churches in the UK, and the International Churches of Christ worldwide.
You are always welcome to come to visit and engage with our Church family in Glasgow. Our values as a church are reflected in our mission statement “Learning, Loving and Living for Christ”.
If you want to learn more about who we are and what we are like, the best thing you can do is come and meet with us and see for yourself!
The Churches Of Christ And The “Restoration” Movement
Ultimately the goal of the Glasgow Church of Christ is to be a modern-day expression of the church that Jesus envisioned in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), and that His apostles began by His authority through the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1-2) in the 1st century. From a more recent historical perspective, the Glasgow Church of Christ was born out of a Christian movement called the Restoration Movement.
What Was The Restoration Movement?
In the United States of America in the mid-1800s, the social fabric of society was very religious, yet very divided along religious denominational and sectarian lines. A revival movement began called the “Second Great Awakening” which saw a renewed faith and vigour for Christianity in the United States.
Within this broader revival, a group of ministers began to re-examine their affiliations with established denominations. They began to see that many of the teachings, creeds and traditions within churches did not come from the simple application of Scripture, but instead came from historic rivalries, disputes and political engagements of the church throughout history.
They began to re-imagine Christianity in more simple and pure terms. When Jesus and the apostles began the church, there were no “Catholics” or “Orthodox” or “Protestant” Christians with lists of accompanying creeds. There were simply “Christians” or, as they were regularly called in the 1st century, “disciples” of Jesus (Acts 11:26).
As these ministers connected with like-minded individuals, they began what would later be dubbed the “Restoration” movement, named for their vision to “restore” Biblical Christianity. This was a “back-to-basics” movement that sought to identify the core teachings of Jesus and the apostles as recorded in the Scriptures, without adding any further doctrinal or dogmatic criteria not clearly stated in the New Testament.
This was also a “unity” movement, as they sought to welcome any individuals into the church who agreed to become united around these core essentials, regardless of prior church affiliation.
The Restoration Movement would go on to have a global impact and evolved into different branches of church families, such as Christian churches, Disciples of Christ and the Churches of Christ – out of which The Glasgow Church of Christ and our current global fellowship of the International Churches of Christ came.
In the Glasgow Church of Christ, we continue to hold out the ethos of “restoration” as a modern-day path to the basic teachings of Scripture and the unity of being Christians-only. In the spirit of John 17:20-21, we are happy to connect with any Christian groups out there who are doctrinally-similar, relationally-connected or historically-affiliated.
Let Glasgow Flourish Through The Preaching Of Thy Word!
When Mungo began sharing the Christian gospel to the communities along the Clyde River in the late 6th century, the city of Glasgow was born and thrived as a place centred in the life of the church. Even as Glasgow has grown and evolved over the centuries, Mungo’s impact lives on in the iconic history of the city’s seal and motto.
Sadly, Glasgow is a city with its own history of sectarian religious strife and division. But such divisions were never part of the plan of Christianity, though they have become a sad reality of church history.
We believe that by restoring the powerful and pure simplicity of Jesus’s teachings in a unified and loving church community, that Glasgow can be the kind of place that its patron saint and founder – St. Mungo – spoke of when he said: “Let Glasgow flourish through the preaching of thy word and the praising of thy name”.
We stay active primarily through our Sunday worship services, and through local small-group meetings. Our small-groups are an integral part of our church-life to nurture and facilitate personal spiritual growth through discipleship, as well as an evangelistic outreach. Our Sunday meetings and small-groups are augmented with various activities/retreats/events that get planned throughout the year.
If you want to learn more about who we are and what we are like, the best thing you can do is come and meet with us and see for yourself!
