A WARM HIGHLAND WELCOME
Welcome to Balintore United Free Church, nestled in the heart of the Seaboard Villages of the Scottish Highlands. We’re a friendly church family of neighbours, friends, and generations together, united in our love for Christ and our desire to make Him known.
We seek to be a God-honouring, Christ-Centred, Spirit-Filled, Gospel Driven, and Mission Focussed church. We believe in simple, heartfelt worship, rooted in God’s Word and shaped by the grace of the Gospel. Whether you’re exploring faith or seeking a place to belong, we’d be delighted to welcome you.
Communion Weekend with Rev Prof Andrew McGowan
Balintore United Free Church will hold its Communion Weekend on Saturday 15th November and Sunday 16th November. Our Preparatory Service is on Saturday at 7pm, followed by fellowship and refreshments in the Hall. The Communion Service will be on Sunday at 11am, and the Thanksgiving Service on Sunday evening at 6pm. All are warmly invited to join us.
We are delighted to welcome Rev Prof Andrew McGowan as our guest preacher. Andrew is a much-loved Scottish theologian and pastor whose ministry has taken him from Mallaig and the Small Isles, to Aberdeen, then to Glasgow, and later to Inverness as minister of the East Church. He helped establish Highland Theological College as its founding Principal and later became Director of the Rutherford Centre for Reformed Theology, whose office was based at the College. He has also served the wider church through the World Reformed Fellowship and the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society. Andrew retired from formal ministry in January 2024.
He now lives in Alness with his wife, June, and continues to write, teach, and support the life and witness of the Church in Scotland and further afield.
Welcoming Chris Robertson to the Eldership
On Sunday 14th September 2025, at our Morning Worship, Mr Chris Robertson was welcomed and ordained to the Eldership of Balintore United Free Church. Chris was nominated by the congregation and warmly received by the Kirk Session, a sign of God’s ongoing provision for our fellowship. It was encouraging to see such a good attendance on this special occasion, as together we gave thanks for the Lord’s continued faithfulness to our congregation and prayed for Chris in his new calling.
This ordination is particularly significant in the life of Balintore UF, as the last elders to be ordained were in May 2002. In a church that traces its story back to 1738, through times of blessing, trial, and renewal, the ordaining of a new elder is a reminder that Christ continues to build His Church in every generation. As our forebears once covenanted together to remain steadfast in the gospel, so today we rejoice that the Lord is still raising up those who will shepherd and serve His people in Balintore and beyond.
We look ahead with gratitude and hope, trusting that God will bless Chris and his wife Barbara, and through them strengthen the witness of our congregation in the years to come.
