Church Extension

Church Extension churches are new churches - churches that have been planted in recent years. St. Andrews is a recent church plant.

St. Andrews - Rev. Alasdair I. Macleod
Alasdair was brought up near Inverness and studied at Aberdeen University, the Free Church College in Edinburgh and Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He has pastored in a country setting, at the village of Muir of Ord in the Highlands and has also ministered in an urban situation, at Leith in Edinburgh. He is married to Cathie, a nurse, and they have two grown-up daughters, Maureen and Kathryn. Alasdair is a fan of the English Premier League, the TV series 24, crime novels and coffee shops. He is very old and, so, is very wise.

St. Andrews Free Church
The beautiful town of St. Andrews (resident population 16,000) has a historical and contemporary importance out of all proportion to its size. It boasts the oldest university in Scotland, founded in the early fifteenth century, whose reputation now attracts students from all over the world. The town also played a crucial role in the struggles of the Scottish Reformation and witnessed martyrdoms for the cause of truth. And it is today a magnet for tourists, especially for those who want to make their pilgrimage to the home of golf.

The Free Church’s recent work here began under the visionary leadership of Rev. David Robertson, minister of St. Peter’s Free Church, Dundee. His congregation began to hold midweek Bible Studies and then Sunday afternoon services in St. Andrews. This began to attract students who found the ministry meeting a real need, especially through the regular preaching of Grant Macaskill, who was a PhD student in New Testament. In 2003, the Free Church’s General Assembly authorised the appointment of a full-time minister to this new church plant and Alasdair I. Macleod was inducted later that year.

The church holds a morning service in the Boys’ Brigade Hall, Kinnessburn Road, and an evening service at Martyrs Church of Scotland, North Street. There are midweek Bible Studies held in homes, plus a youth club for teenagers on Monday evenings. There is an ongoing programme of evangelism in the town and special outreach events are also held. The work among students has been richly blessed, though every year sees another sizeable group leave the congregation and town for good. Our prayer is that their spiritual home here might have been significant in their preparation for a lifetime of service for Christ.

Alasdair and his wife, Cathie, are very involved in the lives of students, both in the church and through their support for the ministry of the Christian Union and other Christian societies. Alasdair is also an Honorary Chaplain to the University and a part-time lecturer in Practical Theology at the Free Church College in Edinburgh.