About us
We are a gathering of believers united in our love for Christ, where all are welcome to come and join us for worship, where we hear the Word of God preached faithfully. We confess the Reformed Faith as outlined in the 1689 Baptist Confession, holding to holy scripture as the only certain rule of faith and practice and seeking to glorify God in the town of Ramsbottom.
Ecclesiology Week 2021- Dr James Renihan
We are delighted that Prof. James Renihan is returning to teach his ecclesiology course October 27th to November 3rd 2021 God-willing. Go to our 1689 page for more details and to secure your place – numbers are limited.
Searching for a sermon? Or maybe a Podcast?
Featured Updates
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The Enduring Value Of A Long Sermon Series
What does a longer sermon series implicitly communicate to the household of God? That the Bible is a book that is meant to be studied! That all Scripture, like the apostle Paul indicated, is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (1 Tim. 3:16-17).
If the pastor never carefully works through long texts of Scripture, then the pastor is probably implicitly communicating to the congregation: it’s not worth it, it can’t be done, and simply be satisfied with a shallow glossing over and skimming over the Word of God.
Which is exactly the wrong message to communicate to the church. The church needs a model of a preacher studying hard texts of Scripture in its midst because the entire church should be doing the same. The church needs to be constantly challenged to study the Word of God in all its breadth and depth for therein lies the very life and love of God communicated to His people.
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A Summer Update From IRBS
We continue to thank God for your prayerful support of the seminary as we quickly approach the beginning of the Fall 2021 semester. Our summer has been remarkably busy, and we are encouraged by all the exciting things that have been happening here. Last month, we held the commencement ceremony for our first Texas graduate! We congratulate Salvatore Pezzino on completing his Master of Divinity degree and pray for the Lord’s blessing on him as he steps into the eldership of Sycamore Reformed Baptist Church in East Moline, Illinois.
At commencement, Dr. Renihan announced our new hybrid academic program, as well as our new church sponsorship program; these have both generated quite a bit of interest and we are rapidly answering queries and processing applications!
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Your ingenious immune system
Imagine a nation-state which regularly faces serious, even destructive, threats. In jeopardy from external forces and internal sabotage, it operates under strict martial law, with capital punishment for foreign invaders or rogue citizens. There are specialist centres for essential education and training, as well as detention centres, waste disposal facilities, and efficient transport systems.
The state ensures its own survival by ruthlessly policing its borders and neutralizing any menace. This requires surveillance and security checks. Its sophisticated identification system lets it detect and eliminate terrorists, while protecting innocent citizens. Individuals with particular skills, some at elite level, are its police, soldiers, and special operatives. High-level communication ensures coordinated responses, and pre-emptive strategies are in place to efficiently counter dangerous incursions.
All this has parallels with your body’s ingenious immune system.
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Watson’s Wisdom on Prayer
Thomas Watson’s most famous work, A Body of Practical Divinity, published posthumously in 1692, consisted of 176 sermons on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Watson was a clear writer, adept at providing memorable phrases and illustrations. He joined theological understanding with warm spirituality and piety. When he died suddenly, he was engaged in private prayer.
Watson’s wisdom lives on, especially his wisdom on prayer. Prayer was central and crucial in Watson’s understanding of Christian faith and life. He wrote that a godly person “will as soon live without food, as without prayer.” For “in prayer we draw nigh to God.” Faith is necessary in prayer: “Faith must take prayer by the hand, or there is no coming nigh to God.” “Prayer is the Key of Heaven,” said Watson, but “faith is the hand that turns it.” “Prayer without faith is unsuccessful,” Watson believed. Most simply: “A prayer that is faithless is fruitless.”
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Youth Conference Podcast!
A special Trinity Grace Podcast episode previewing the upcoming youth conference on biblical worship.
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WHAT WE GIVE AND RECEIVE IN GATHERING TOGETHER
What are some of the unique blessings of gathering together for worship? What have we missed when it was not available? It is not simply a matter of what we have not received personally. Our responsibility is to give just as much as receive. Primarily we give worship to God and also receive spiritual blessings. The Lord’s people are also meant to strengthen one another as one body, we are not meant to “go it alone”. One coal taken out of the fire cannot preserve its heat like those that are together in the fire.
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Persecution In Nigeria
According to the latest report by the Nigerian NGO Intersociety, in the four months from January to April 2021 Nigeria ‘lost no fewer than 1,470 Christians… the highest number recorded since 2014’.
And reports just published by both the US State Department and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) single out Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern for tolerating severe violations of religious freedom’.
Intersociety calculate that 2,200 Nigerian Christians were abducted by jihadists between January and April this year. Of those 220 are believed to have been murdered.
The NGO say Fulani militants killed more than 800 Christians, in a conflict often simplistically characterised as clashes over resources between herders and farmers.
Their findings support research suggesting more Christians are being killed in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world.
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Christine’s Testimony
As children, my dad used to bring me and my brother and sister to church and Sunday school every week and we were brought up in a Christian family. As a teenager, I often got a little bored and remember wondering how much longer the service would go on for so that I could go home and do the things I wanted to do. Eventually, somewhere between the ages of 18 and 21, I thought I am an adult now and can do what I want, and I do not have to go to church if I do not want to. As a result of this, I had been away from church for over thirty years!!
I have always believed in God and the sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ made for sinners, but I did not live my life as though this was personal to me. I made a mess of my life whilst doing my own thing and this included a marriage breakdown and subsequent divorce.
However, I told myself that I would go back to church in my 70s or 80s before I died – what a ridiculous notion!! What if I had died in my sins and not in Christ before I reached my old age? Indeed, what if the Lord Jesus Christ had returned before my twilight years?
The story I am going to tell now is about my journey back to God.
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Footprint fiasco shows why dating methods can’t be trusted
The case of human footprints found in a layer of volcanic ash in Mexico is a good example of how different dating methods can give wildly different dates for the same layer. Radiometric dating is not objective science!
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James Coates: Suffering & Imprisonment to the Glory of God
In this episode of The Sword and The Trowel, Tom Ascol and Jared Longshore talk with Pastor James Coates after his release from prison, where he was placed after refusing to comply with the Canadian government’s COVID-19 guidelines his church. They discuss the state of Grace Life Church, what it was like for Pastor Coates in jail, how to pray for the church – which now has chain fences placed around the building, and the importance of strong theology and commitment to God’s word in the face of persecution.
What's on?
There is always something going on here at Trinity Grace Church, learn more on our ‘What’s on’ page.
Gallery
Back in 2011 we made a very important decision as a church, to adopt the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith as our statement of faith, and we became a confessional church.
Resources
Here you can find a vast array of helpful, encouraging and edifying resources to further your understanding of the Christian faith
Churches & Organisations
Here you can find the Churches and organisations we support as a fellowship. We support these works with resources which God has blessed us with and prayer for the glory of God.
Overseas / Missions
Trinity Grace Church has supported overseas missionary ministries for many years. We first began our involvement in the early 1970s and since then have expanded our gospel outreach to a needy world. We believe it is the responsibility of local churches to engage in this ministry, and we have rejoiced to play our part in the building of God’s kingdom throughout the world.
