Smithton-Culloden Free Church is an evangelical church in the Reformed and Presbyterian traditions.



Evangelicals believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God. This means they believe that every word of the Bible comes directly from God and is true in every respect, in theological issues as well as in matters of science and history.

An evangelical church affirms various fundamental doctrines of the Bible such as the virgin birth, the literal and physical resurrection of Jesus and the historicity of the miracles. At the heart of evangelical thinking is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, which is the belief that Jesus Christ bore the penalty of the sins of his people by taking their punishment on the cross of Calvary.

Evangelical churches emphasise the need to be 'converted' or 'born again' in order to be a true Christian. It is this emphasis which makes evangelical churches so active in mission both in their home areas and also internationally.



Reformed churches stand in the tradition of the Reformation, a movement of spiritual revitalisation which took place in western Christendom from about 1500 to the mid seventeenth century. During the Reformation the church moved from the monastery to the market place. Christian understanding and practice were taken from the hands of a professional priesthood and placed firmly in the hands of individual believers.

Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin demonstrated from the Bible that salvation could not be granted by the church (as had been taught) but that God, in Christ, had accomplished salvation for man and offered it to him as a free gift - a gift which man could receive by faith alone. The placing of the Scriptures in the hands of ordinary men was to have profound implications for western culture.



Three distinctive features mark a Presbyterian church:

1) It is connectional. Each individual congregation is governed by elders who meet in a body known as the Kirk Session. The local elders meet with other groups of elders from different congregations in a body called the Presbytery. In the Free Church of Scotland the Presbytery is known as the 'radical court' of the church. It is the function of the Presbytery to motivate and encourage local congregations. Once every year delegates from the Presbyteries meet together in a large national gathering known as the General Assembly which supervises the interests of the whole church and is the final court of authority.

2) It is covenantal. This is very strongly linked to the belief in connectional church government. In a Presbyterian church there is a strong emphasis on the fact that God has always worked through covenant. An example of this is the view that God has promised to bless the family unit and that the children of Christian parents are special and privileged. That privilege is marked by the baptism of infants.

3) It is confessional. A full statement of our beliefs as a church can be found in the Westminster Confession of Faith. This is a credal standard which was drawn up at Westminster between 1643 and 1645. Each office bearer in the Free Church of Scotland commits himself to 'own and believe the whole doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith'(1).

Like many other Presbyterian churches, the Free Church of Scotland takes as its symbol the burning bush, along with the motto 'nec tamen consumebatur', which means 'however it was not being burned up'. In Exodus 3:1-3 we read that God spoke to Moses from a bush which seemed to be in flames but was not being destroyed. The burning bush is a symbol of God's presence. In Smithton-Culloden Free Church this symbol can be seen on our pulpit fall, which was designed and embroidered by Sandra Murray, a member of our congregation, in memory of Rev W R Mackay. We have used Sandra's design as the logo for our website.