A NEW SEASON IN NAIRN- The Opening of our Space on the High Street
By Jonathan Turner, Minister at Nairn Baptist Church
“Some may remember a short prayer video that I made when we were in the stage of hope that Nairn Baptist Church could have a leased property on the High Street in Nairn.
As a small church, we have been aware of the challenges for us over some time, as we currently have no children and younger families. We have heard the call to increase and not to decrease and so have been both seeking God, and seeking to engage the community in various ways, including our Renew Wellbeing work which has been one of our key connecting points in recent years.
The vision of the church over some years, in fact through the covid years, was to have a space on the High Street in order to increase our presence and the possibility of greater impact locally. We had been pursuing this but without success until mid-way through 2024, when the door seemed to open wider! This took us on to negotiations and then confirmation of proceeding through our church discernment process in the Autumn of 2024.
In due course, we signed the lease of the property in October 2024 (planning for a 3 year lease) and we set about renovating the property from its rather shabby and tired office look and spent 6 months working on it. The goal was a shift towards creating a space of welcome and connection for the community of Nairn; the risk and step of faith for us was “just do something and see where it leads”.
Having run a wellbeing space based on the ethos of Renew Wellbeing for 3 years (located in another church as we don’t have our own building), we sought to create a space along these lines with a social and connecting space alongside a cosy prayer space.
Our work also involved creating an attractive accessible toilet and small kitchen from the bones of an old kitchen and completely re-flooring, a lot of re-wiring and re-painting as well as seeking tasteful décor to suit the style we were looking for.
We are delighted to report that we have achieved our goal and opened officially in mid-May 2025! Our aim has been to start in a manageable and sustainable way so we now have 2 sessions of 2 hours per week or Renew Wellbeing per week and we ran a short bereavement course, ‘The Bereavement Journey’ on 1 evening per week for 7 weeks. This was very well received by those attending, a number of whom had no church connection.
Our contact with the people of the town has already increased and we were present at the local Street Market on Saturday 12th July with many people including loads of children stopping by to take part in our activities, both outside and inside the building.
The name of our space reflects the number on the street (32) and our connection to Renew Wellbeing in addition to being a title which might invite comment and interest, as we seek to break down some significant barriers about what the church is.
There is no doubt that mental health is a big national agenda issue and so we are offering the space to any community groups who are pursuing a wellbeing agenda so that the building is used as much as possible.
Many of our folk have been active painters, decorators, cleaners, contributors, thinkers, pray-ers, hop-ers and encouragers on the way. Local charities and businesses have been interested and supportive.
So, we are beginning a new season for Nairn Baptist- having our own space to use for smaller meetings, seeking to connect via wellbeing and bereavement groups, hoping to run Alpha courses and to open up the space for community groups.
We are praying regularly in our Renew 32 on a Monday evening, for an open heart and God’s blessing into this work.”
