Stanmore Baptist Church observes the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, being a reformed confessional church. All messages taught to the congregation are of the ‘5 solae’ -Sola scriptura (by scripture alone) -Sola fide (by faith alone) -Sola gratia (by grace alone) -Solus Christus (Christ alone) -Soli Deo Gloria (glory to God alone) The church reaches out to the local community and makes their teachings available locally as well as internationally, the church primarily works to help others.
History: The area of Stanmore was surrounded by farmland and was being reconstructed and divided to housing as Sydney’s population was expanding. In 1901 on December 12th, 12 families moved from Petersham Baptist church to form Stanmore Baptist Church, a church that now practices and believes in reformed theology. It has been stated that is is unclear whether the church was reformed at the time. The desire arose from the expanding area, to form a new church. The church was extended in 1903 due to the growing population. The first minister was named CJ Tinsley, who had moved from London as he was studying at Spurgeon’s college. He was an extremely successful pastor and in 1910, the church had increased from 12 families to 519 members. In 1915 this figure had increased to 550 members. CJ Tinsley ministered for 44 years, baptising 1,250 people and bringing 2,000 into the church as members. The church had input into Sydney’s community in the inner west as it worked to provide hostels and homes for men, women and children. It also became a centre as it taught and ministered to the greater community by sending missionaries into other parts of the world.
“We must preach, or we will perish; we must evangelise, or we will fossilise, we must be a missionary force, or we will become a mission field” – CJ Tinsley
David Roberts, Pastor and Elder at Stanmore Baptist Church, has noticed that in his lifetime, the church was definitely at a reform theological position in the middle of the 1980’s. The pastor at the time was recommended by one of the deacons in the church to read a set of works by a puritan writer named John Owen. These works prompted a Calvinistic position and accepted reform positions as biblical truth. When he input these teachings into the church from the pulpit, Pastor Roberts noticed a separation between those who implemented this biblical standpoint in their lifestyle and those who did not. These new teachings impacted the church community.
Pastor David states, “These observations and consequential changes as a result of application of biblical truth in people’s hearts and lives have continued since that time and is still the same in the church today”
Pastor David has also established that Stanmore Baptist follows the TULIP acronym (Total depravity of man Unconditional election Limited atonement Irresistable grace Perseverance of the saints) He also states that, “A truly reformed position also takes the Bible as its final authority for all matters of faith and doctrine and would submit to the authority of the Scriptures in this way as God breathed Word of God for the life and practice. Where there is any question or query in life, action, or church practice what the Bible commands or directs is what is to be followed. God has given the Scriptures to us for this purpose that we might know how He wants us to live and serve him (2Tim 3:16).” This shows us the position of the church in context of Christianity in Australia.
Ps. Roberts acknowledges that reformed theology in his experience doesn’t have a ‘strong voice’ or is largely accepted in Australia, he believes this to be because of misunderstanding. He also believes it to be due to doctrine being miscommunicated and tainted. This can happen in many denominations and religions however.
The building and congregation of Stanmore Baptist Church. One of the Pastors, Pastor Michael is speaking from the front