Our Church
We’re an independent church which is based in East Gateshead and usually meets in the Methodist church building on Station Road, Bill Quay.
Our members come from all over Gateshead, and we try to encourage each other on our journey of faith to love God, love each other and love others.
We are currently worshipping together each Sunday at 10.30am. Please do get in touch with us via the email link or on Facebook if you would like to find out more.
What We Believe
Our Trust deed has as its aim the following:
“The object of the Charity is to advance the Christian Faith for the benefit of the public, through activities such as worship, prayer and other public events.”
Therefore, everything that we do as a church should fit in some way with this objective. We take as our guide the words of Jesus, when he said that the Greatest Commandment was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbour as you love yourself.
Evangelical Alliance Statement of Faith
The one true God who lives eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world
The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God–fully trustworthy for faith and conduct
The dignity of all people, made male and female in God’s image to love, be holy and carefor creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement
The incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ -born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin
The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God
The bodily resurrection of Christ, the first fruits of our resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world
The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ
The ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness
The Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers -given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit’s gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love
The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth
Baptism
We believe that baptism is for those who have chosen to put their faith in Christ. Following the New Testament model, we do not baptize babies or infants, but rather wait until an individual decides that they want to declare their faith publicly in Christ by being baptised. There is no age limit on this; it simply depends on each person’s declaration of faith.
Our church practices ‘full immersion’ baptism, which is where the individual goes fully under the water. This symbolizes leaving behind the old way of life and beginning a new life following Christ. Coming up out of the water also identifies with the resurrection of Jesus.
As we don’t have facilities within our church building to baptise fully in this way, we usually use a local Baptist church for our baptisms – although we have also conducted ceremonies in a large swimming pool in the church garden and also in the North Sea!
We do recognise the special place that children hold in the heart of Jesus, and so, at the request of parents attached to the church, we pray for babies or infants to receive a blessing from God and agree as a church to support the parents in the upbringing of the child as far as we are able. For anyone wishing to baptise / christen their baby or infant in the traditional way using water, we would refer the family to the local Methodist or Anglican Minister.
Financial Gifts
As a registered charity, most of our income comes from the gifts of our members, much of which is Gift Aided. We don’t have a weekly offering, but instead have an offering box which is always available at the front of the church should anyone wish to give. Many members choose to give via standing order each month; this giving is kept private, known only to the giver and the Treasurer. Sometimes, we receive grants from different organisations, always for a specific purpose. No-one is under any pressure or obligation to give financially to the work of the church.
We have a group of four Trustees who administer the finances of the church, with an experience Chair. This group reports to the Charities Commission each year, and the accounts are always independently audited. We try to give away more than ten percent of our annual income, and usually give away more than this. Some of our giving has gone to support missionaries who have gone overseas from the church, young people who have taken gap years to work voluntarily with organisations which are in line with our Trust aims, and other local or national organisations such as Junction 42 and Tear Fund.
Membership
We would encourage anyone who decides that Bill Quay Community Church is their home church family to speak to one of the leaders about membership. This involves having a conversation to discuss their Journey of Faith, and how each person feels they might be called to serve God as part of the church.
As members of the church, we give the leaders permission to have pastoral care and oversight over us, and we are accountable to each other in our Faith Journey. We make clear our commitment to this particular church family, and our desire to serve God within it as He calls us. This mutual commitment can also open up further opportunities to serve on behalf of the church.
All those in positions of leadership and responsibility within the church are members.
LEADERship TEAM
Paul Cassidy (Senior Elder)
Paul is a retired GP who has worked in Gateshead all of his life. He is the Senior Elder on our leadership team, and oversees our Money Matters projects. He is involved in a number of networks across Gateshead which work together to fight poverty and alleviate hardship.
Chris Roberts (Chair of Trustees)
Chris is an experienced teacher who is also Chair of Bill Quay Jubilee Trust’s Board of Trustees.
Gary Cassidy
Gary works for Northern Electric, and helps with pastoral work within the church.
Jane Kitson
Jane is a music teacher and leads our music group within church. She also leads our Bill Quay Singers Choir and helps to develop community links.
Angela Mason
Angela is a music teacher and helps to lead sung worship in church services. She works as part of the Money Matters team and also maintains the website.
Andrew Robinson
Andrew works in IT and plays an important role in the teaching ministry of the church. He also leads on dealing with practical and IT issues within the life of the church.
Trustees
Chris Roberts
Chris is the chair of trustees. He is a semi-retired Geography teacher and chairs the trustee meetings and the AGM.
Jane Roberts
Jane is a retired physiotherapist and the church treasurer . She overseas the day to day running of the church accounts.
Jon Ward
Jon is an ex-teacher and former local authority education officer. He assists with authorising bills and is the church’s main link with the Charity Commission.
David Jackson
David is a retired lecturer. He is involved in CAP ( Christians Against Poverty) as a befriender and takes minutes of trustee meetings.
Jon Kitson
Jon works as a repairs and property manager for a social housing company. He also manages the church football team.
Judy McCartney
Judy is Deputy Head of Finance for a local insurance intermediary with many years of experience in accountancy and senior management. Her experience is invaluable in helping to support the work of the Trustees.
