About

What is a Christian?

“Christian” is a term that refers to a person who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. A Christian believes that Jesus was not a mythical figure, nor was He a mere man who lived during the Roman Empire for thirty-three years and died without victory, but He is the one and only Son of God, who loves every person who has ever lived so much that He conquered death to give us eternal life with Him.

Becoming a Christian is a response to this extraordinary love. By declaring themselves a Christian, people commit to a life transformed by the person of Jesus Christ.

Anyone can become a Christian. Nothing in your past, nothing you think or feel is too terrible that it cannot be salvaged by what Christ has done.

What do we believe?

  • One God (three persons): Father, Son and Holy Spirit who created all things by His mighty power, and is in control of all things.
  • Men and women: created perfect in the image of God but who, through disobedience, have become the slaves of sin and are therefore liable to God's just punishment.
  • Jesus Christ: the eternal Son of God who became man, lived a blameless life and died in our place, taking all our guilt away; who rose physically from the dead and is alive and reigning in heaven today as Lord of all; who will one day return to this world and judge all men, condemning those who are unrepentant and unbelieving and taking those who truly believe in Him to be with Him in heaven.
  • The Holy Spirit: who works in the hearts of people, enabling them to believe in Jesus Christ and to repent of their wrongdoings (sins) and who is a living reality in the lives of those who are true believers.
  • The forgiveness of sin: this comes about as a free and undeserved gift through the death of the Lord Jesus, in the place of sinners, and is received only through faith in Him.
  • The Bible: which is God's Word, true and meaningful to all generations and in all circumstances, and tells us what we need to know, about what we should believe and how we should live.
  • The Church: this is the world-wide community of people who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
  • Believers’ baptism: we believe that all those who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ should follow His example and instruction to be baptised. In Bellevue we provide for full-immersion baptism. If you are a believer and have not yet responded to the Lord’s call to be baptised or would simply like to know more about it, then please speak to one of the Elders.

While we all share those common beliefs, there are plenty of things that make us different! Children, teenagers, students, men and women, old and young, singles, couples, families from a diverse number of countries with different church traditions (or none at all!). We don’t always agree on every matter of belief but we believe that we are one family in the body of Christ who come together to encourage, support, teach, have fun with and most importantly love one other!

When Do We Meet?

We meet together frequently to worship God, to study the Bible and to encourage and pray for one another. We warmly welcome visitors to our meetings. As of Dec 2022 the following service times and locations will apply. Both of our Sunday services are live streamed.

10:30am, Bellevue Chapel. Rodney Street
Our all-age Sunday worship service live streamed, and during this service there are activities for children and young adults. On the last Sunday of the month we also include a time of communion in this service.

6:30pm - 7:45pm, Bellevue Chapel. Rodney Street
This is our weekly communion service and will either include a time of bible teaching from a speaker or an open time of worship for the congregation to contribute a word of prayer or encouragement from scripture.

For details of other gatherings, take a look at the Community page.

Staff

Joshua Luke
Community Pastor

Josh grew up in Reading, England, and married Kat in 2015. After working with the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, he spent several years as trainee minister of Wycliffe Baptist Church, Reading, before serving as Youth and Young Adults Pastor for Templestowe Baptist Church in Melbourne, Australia. Upon returning from down under and completing a theology degree at St Mellitus College, he and Kat moved to Edinburgh to join Bellevue Chapel in late 2022. Josh particularly loves food, music, films, books, chess and online strategy games, conversations over coffee and getting to know all kinds of people from around the world.

Fiona McPhail
Pastoral Care Assistant

Fiona is originally from Glasgow and found her way to living in Edinburgh after a decade spent south of the border in London. A member at Bellevue for many years Fiona is the pastoral care assistant, supporting the Senior Pastor in providing pastoral support to church members and the wider community.

Leadership

A team of elders lead Bellevue. The elders’ primary role is to provide spiritual oversight to the church. This function is discharged specifically through the provision of pastoral care, teaching and discernment of God's will for the church. The leadership model as demonstrated by the Lord Jesus and emphasised by scripture is that of servant leadership.

Rowan Parks

Rowan is a medic who loves watching the sporting endeavours of his four children and escaping to Loch Lomond to be on the water.

George Campbell

George is a husband, dad, lawyer and supporter of a famous Glasgow football club. His gradually expanding waistline disguises that he also likes to cycle

John Mair

John's natural habitat is at home with family when not at work or attending group gatherings; he enjoys fresh air and exercise

Alan Paterson

Alan is married to Julie and they have one son. He is almost now accepted in the east of Scotland having emigrated from the west many years ago.

Ewen McDonald

Ewen works as a software developer, enjoys spending time with his family, golfing and watching most sports.

Ken Knowles

Ken is married to Anne and is an IT security consultant. He avoids exercise by being otherwise engaged in a geeky pastime related to either computers, aviation or both.