Allow us to introduce ourselves

Our story

Brookside started in the late 80s as a church plant in the west end of Ottawa. At first, we met in a public school and later broke ground at our Klondike Road location in Kanata. Our desire has always been to reach our community with the love of Christ. Over the years, we’ve seen God do great things in and through the lives of those connected to Brookside. God has been faithful, and we can’t wait to see all that he has in store for Brookside in the years to come.

Our mission

We exist to help develop fully engaged followers of Jesus who seek God passionately, love one another sacrificially and share the gospel boldly.

Our values

Our values are the things that guide us, shape us and inspire us as we pursue this mission together. They are part of what makes us unique:

Serve first
Am I putting Jesus and others ahead of myself?

Pull together
Am I building alignment around our mission, vision and strategy?

Aim high
Am I going for extraordinary?

Make it happen
Am I doing whatever it takes?

Laugh hard
Is my joy in Jesus contagious?

Our vision

Imagine being a part of a community where people come together to worship and help one another, where faith is an important part of everyday life and where you can make a difference in this world. This is what we see for the future of Brookside—a community of people who are passionate about Jesus and about coming together to serve and share their faith with others. They don’t just do this on Sundays; they live it out in their everyday lives. They help others find purpose and meaning in Christ, and they never stop until everyone in Ottawa West has been offered the good news of new life in Him.

By 2035, and by the grace of God, we believe Brookside will be a growing family of fully engaging followers of Jesus from all cultures and walks of life. We will be marked as a PEOPLE who seek Jesus passionately, love one another sacrificially, and share the gospel boldly throughout Ottawa West and beyond.

We see a redeveloped home base where we meet to learn and grow and equip one another to serve both within and beyond the walls of our building. Our MAIN SITE will be large enough for 400 and designed to meet the growing needs of our church family both on-site and across our city, while strategically meeting needs in the immediate community.

We envision a NETWORK of five reproducing satellite sites across the west side of the National Capital Region by 2035, supported and resourced by our main site, allowing even greater transformation in each of the communities in which we live.

Our beliefs

Brookside is a member of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada (FEBCC). We have adopted the FEBCC Statement of Faith as our own.

The Bible

We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God; that the sixty-six books, as originally written, comprising the Old and New Testaments were verbally inspired by the Spirit of God and were entirely free from error; that the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice and the true basis of Christian union.
God
Jesus Christ

We believe in the absolute and essential deity of Jesus Christ, in His eternal existence with the Father in pre-incarnate glory, in His virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, triumphant ascension, mediatorial ministry and personal return.
The Holy Spirit
Man
Satan
Salvation

We believe that salvation is by the sovereign, electing grace of God; that by the appointment of the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a vicarious, expiatory and propitiatory death; that justification is by faith alone in the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and that those whom God has effectually called shall be divinely preserved and finally perfected in the image of the Lord.
Future Things
Ordinances
We believe that there are only two ordinances for the church regularly observed in the New Testament in the following order:

Baptism, which is the immersion of the believer in water, whereby he obeys Christ’s command and sets forth his identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.

The Lord’s Supper, which is the memorial wherein the believer partakes of the two elements, bread and wine, which symbolize the Lord’s body and shed blood, proclaiming His death until He comes.
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THE LOCAL CHURCH

We believe that a church is a company of immersed believers, called out from the world, separated unto the Lord Jesus, voluntarily associated for the ministry of the Word, the mutual edification of its members, the propagation of the faith and the observance of the ordinances. We believe it is a sovereign, independent body, exercising its own divinely awarded gifts, precepts and privileges under the Lordship of Christ, the Great Head of the church. We believe that its officers are pastors and deacons.

THE CHURCH AND STATE

We believe in the entire separation of church and state.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

We believe in religious liberty; that every man has the right to practise and propagate his beliefs.

THE LORD’S DAY

We believe that the first day of the week is the Lord’s day and that, in a special sense, it is the divinely appointed day for worship and spiritual exercise.

CIVIL GOVERNMENT

We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good order of society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honoured and obeyed, except only in the things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the only Lord of the conscience and Prince of the kings of the earth.

Our relational covenant

Brookside is a family of people who are on a journey of getting to know God and becoming fully engaged followers of Jesus. We seek to follow His example and treat each other the way He commands us to in all our interactions.

In the Gospel of John, we read, “Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13: 34-35).

At Brookside Baptist Church…

We love each other the same way Jesus has loved us (John 15: 12-13). This means we care for each other, hold each other accountable, and sacrifice, serve, and engage in God’s mission with and for each other.
We are quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. (James 1: 19)
We expect and work to bring out the best in each other. (Philippians 4:8)
We build each other up rather than tearing each other down. (I Thessalonians 5:11)
We demonstrate respect even when we disagree. (Ephesians 4:1-3; I Tim. 5: 1-2; I Peter 3: 8-9)
Whenever possible, we deal with personal conflicts by going directly to the other person involved. Our goal is always reconciliation and full restoration of the relationship. (Matthew 18:15). *
We are quick to forgive and quick to ask for forgiveness. (Matthew 6:14-15; Ephesians 4:26-27; James 5:16)
We gently approach someone who we believe is not behaving like a follower of Jesus, to help them back onto the right path and into a restored relationship with God and the church. (Galatians 6:1)
We do what is best for our church as a whole. We do not seek to benefit ourselves or our group at the expense of others in the church. (Philippians 2:3-4)
We support the leadership of the church and will be respectful of them even when we disagree with them. (I Thessalonians 5:12-13)

* While the restoration of a relationship is the goal, this might not apply to situations of abuse or harassment where a relationship with the perpetrator might not be advisable.