HISTORY
Dundalk Baptist Church emerged from a small Bible Study group that started to meet in the Dundalk area in the late 1970’s It was constituted formally as a Church with the assistance of Newry Baptist church in February 1988. The initial membership was 8 individuals.
In 1990 the church -having grown to approximately 20 - members purchased the Old Railway Hall in Ardee Terrace as a Centre for worship and outreach into the community. Major renovations have been made to these premises over the years and the church continues to meet there.
From the outset the church has sought to make a positive contribution to the community in a holistic way. As well as attending to the spiritual needs of its members and offering spiritual help to the wider community, we have provided a Counselling ministry as part of our outreach. This service which is offered free of charge, covers the usual areas of spiritual and emotional need.
We are aware that the future of our Church community is linked to the quality of our pastoral leadership. To that end we have developed a relationship with both the Irish Baptist College and the Reformed Baptist Seminary in the US for the training of prospective leadership in the church. Our current lead Pastor Michael Emadi teaches there – usually via online programmes. Our retired pastor and our newest pastor, Les Slye- are graduates and current students in the Irish Bible College and the Reformed Baptist Seminary respectively.
Over the years the make up of our church has reflected the changing demographics of Ireland. Our Current membership of approximately 70 is very diverse . As well as indigenous Irish there are members from Nigeria, Angola, Croatia, India, Brazil, Lithuania, and South Africa. The addition of the “New Irish” is a refreshing development, and the church has risen to the challenge of helping to integrate these new members into our wider community as well as our church.
Like the rest of the community we are facing an exciting and challenging future. Our hope and our purpose is that equipped with the unique resource that we have been given- the eternal truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ- we can continue to make our small contribution to our community and its future.
Stephen Murphy
Dundalk Baptist Church