Our church was formed on 5th September 1897 as a result of Charles Livngstone recognising the vast numbers of Govan people who had no faith in Jesus and were lost without him.

John Harper

A group of 25 members formed Paisley Road Baptist Church and they called a street preacher named John Harper as their first pastor. The church grew as men and women came to know Jesus as Saviour.

Some years after he left Paisley Road Baptist Church, John Harper was asked to speak at the Moody Church in Chicago. He was travelling onboard the RMS Titanic, when on April 14th 1912 the ship struck an iceberg, with the loss of over 1490 lives.

Accounts of the last minutes of the Titanic sinking indicate that John Harper was leading men and women to know the saving grace of our Lord and Saviour before they drowned.

Accounts given indicates John Harper asked one man ” Has your Soul been Saved” and upon the negative response he gave the man his life vest.

The man survived to tell the story of John Harper but Harper’s life in this world ended. John was fully aware of his own mortality but he was assured from God’s Word that since he was trusting in the Lord Jesus, there was a place reserved for him in Heaven.

In 1921 the original ‘Tin Kirk’ was replaced by a new building and the church was renamed ‘Harper Memorial Baptist Church’.  The church has continued to share the good news of Jesus with the various communities around us.  Over 100 years later, the need is just as great and the gospel just as good. We press on, ‘together on a mission to make and grow disciples of Jesus Christ, seeing lives changed, around our doors, in our city, across our nation and over God’s World’.