CHURCH LIFE
at Ashbourne Baptist Church
A few glimpses of the more formalised aspects of our church life...
Sundays: 11am | 6pm
We meet to worship God together each Sunday
at St. John The Baptist, Ashbourne
(on the Buxton hill)
with Sunday School and Creche area
Home Bible Study & Prayer
7.30pm
Thursday eve
We meet in various homes —
please contact us for further details.
ABC WhatsApp Group
As a church family who love to be together, to pray for each other and to help each other, we found private social media more helpful than we ever imagined during the Covid lockdowns. Since then we've continued using our ABC WhatsApp Group.
Annual Summer Camp 2024
9th - 16th August
Our annual Summer Camp includes plenty of canoeing — the campsite has its own lake and our hard working pastor builds canoes, both with the Boy's Brigade and at home. There are crafts, challenging and fun activities, trips out, lively Bible teaching and great food!
Special Christmas Celebrations
We love to celebrate Christmas! Because we couldn't run our usual Christmas Carol Services during Lockdown 2020, we took a Christmas Carol Nativity Pop-up Trailer around various streets of Ashbourne, local schools and nearby villages, with a Pop-up Christmas Nativity — 'Son et Lumiere' style. Parts of the stable seen lit up to illustrate the relevant sections of Bible readings and hymns. People participated enthusiastically from their own doorways.
Carols by Candlelight and other Christmas Carol Services were cancelled in 2020 due to lockdown (hence the need to be inventive with the pop-up Carols trailer). The last Carol Service was in 2019 — in the previous decade!
One year we started an ABC Nativity Rocks Facebook group. We like to change things up occasionally! This was a rock craft and treasure hunt: paint a pebble with a picture or words related to the Nativity and hide it in a public place. Finders posted photos of found rocks on the facebook group, effectively tracking the rocks as they were found and re-hidden.
Special Events
— throughout the Year
(facebook video link)
We enjoy coming up with special events — for our members and for the public. The video clip above is from one of our Bonfire Nights with Fireworks & Food on our camping field, especially for Boys Brigade & Girls' Association and their families.
Church Meals, Picnics and Barbecues
We enjoy informal (often impromptu) picnics, sometimes after morning church in the garden of St John's, Ashbourne and elsewhere.
BBQs are often 'lakeside' with canoeing up at our camping field, or for the GideonsUK.
We don't currently have the facilities to re-instate our monthly two-course hot meal - but one day perhaps.... the food and the conversation was always good, and children enjoy playing together! They still enjoy playing together, of course, after church whilst the adults enjoy refreshments and conversation.
Boys' Brigade & Girls' Association
Our own 1st Company Ashbourne Boys' Brigade & Girls' Association meets on Tuesdays 6:15-7:30pm and 7:45-9;15pm (older ones) at The Empire Ballroom, or out and about.
the youngest group - building dens
Mission Support
Prayer and other support for Mission is ongoing... click through to see some of our current mission priorities.
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Courses
We run courses for the general public to disover more about Christianity 
Shrovetide Football Souvenir Postcards
Shrovetide is the biggest thing in Ashbourne. Some of our members have entered the fray of Shrovetide Football as players, and others give out free souvenir postcards throughout the two day (and evening) event, with a Shrovetide-themed gospel presentation on the back.
Schools and Videos
Nathan, our pastor, runs school assemblies — and continued over lockdown via short videos.
He also made short videos with his children for public viewing on our new youtube channel: Hope for Ashbourne 
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ABC Tots
Sadly, ABC Tots has been discontinued.
This is partly due to Covid but also because we are no longer allowed to use The Empire Hall.
Ashbourne Baptist Church
NEW (active) Boys' Brigade Facebook page
