Our Vision

Sandown Free Presbyterian Church was brought into being in 1964, when a godly lady by the name of Mrs Campbell, desired to see a Free Presbyterian witness in the Ballyhackamore area of East Belfast. She kindly donated property located on the corner of Sandown Road and Hewitt Parade. It was on this site that the Sandown Free Presbyterian Church building was erected.

A number of student ministers served the congregation in the early days and the church enjoyed much encouragement and assistance from the then moderator, Dr Ian Paisley. In 1968, Rev. David McIlveen was placed in charge of the congregation, subsequently being installed as the minister in October 1973.

Under his ministry the church enjoyed much blessing and the congregation increased in size. Due to the growth of the congregation, several extensions had to be made to the property. Rev. McIlveen remained as minister of the congregation until his retirement in October 2011. In November 2013, Rev. Garth Wilson was ordained and installed as the new minister of Sandown Free Presbyterian Church.

Our vision for the future involves:

• the exaltation of Christ as Lord and Saviour in all of our activities.
• the preaching of the cross of Christ as God’s ordained means of reaching the lost.
• the evangelisation of the unsaved in our area, sharing with them the blessed truth of the Gospel.

We desire to see our church go forward and to gain ground under God and so we long for the blessing of God upon our congregation in the future – our vision is to see Christ exalted, in our preaching and our praise, and to see God’s people nourished and encouraged by the Word of God, and to see those who are still in their sin come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.