We are a family of neighborhood churches in South Florida.

Building families by helping them discover & pursue God’s design.

Taking the gospel to every person in every neighborhood in South Florida.

DO NOT USE

Teach the Bible

At Family Church we are committed to teaching the Bible because we believe the Bible is the absolute Truth and God’s final authority. We believe both the Old and New Testaments are the inerrant, verbally inspired, and infallible Word of God.

We believe that God chose to reveal Himself to people from creation to the present day. We believe the Bible is the written record of God’s activity and that through it we can discover God’s design for our lives. God, as the author and giver of life, is the only one who can show us how to have life as He intended.

We believe that teaching the Bible includes helping us live it out in our daily lives. Jesus said it is by knowing and doing His Words that we build our lives on a firm foundation that cannot be shaken by life’s storms. For this reason, we alternate between teaching topically and verse-by-verse. We also teach the same material in all of our age-group worship services—adults, students and kids. Even the babies in our nursery are shown God’s great love for them through the actions and words of those who lovingly care for them each week.

Build Families

Family Church is committed to building families for several reasons. First, the Bible refers to those who identify themselves with God using familial language. God refers to Himself as our heavenly Father. When the Apostle Paul talks about church relationships, he refers to us as brothers and sisters in Christ. The Bible tells us that God adopts us and as such, we are adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus. The Bible says God’s family is made up of people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.

On any given Sunday all kinds of families are worshipping with us—single people and college students, young couples (some married, some dating, some engaged and some living together), blended families, single moms and single dads, people who have been married once and people who have had multiple marriages, people raising his kids, her kids and their kids along with senior adults, widows and widowers.

Our goal is to help all kinds of families, in all kinds of situations, discover God’s design. We want to help them dive deeply into the gospel of Jesus so that they can discover and pursue God’s design from wherever they are.

Love Our Neighbors

God tells us that there are two commandments that stand out above the rest: love Him and love our neighbors. This is why we are committed to loving our neighbors—at the micro and the macro levels. We challenge ourselves to live on mission in the places where we work, play and live. We look for opportunities to be a blessing in all of these places. We want to be the people of God who gather together so that we can scatter together. We hold each other accountable to be blessings, engage in random acts of kindness, and pay it forward. We want people to see the love of God on display in us and the gospel of Jesus lived out through us.

We strive to do the same corporately—reaching out as Family Church to our neighborhoods by hosting community events and partnering with neighborhood schools and community organizations. We partner with Palm Beach County Food Bank, Feeding the Hungry, Feed the Hungry, First Care, Community Health Clinic and Urban Youth Impact to meet the needs of under-resourced families all over Palm Beach County.

DO NOT USE

What is Our Statement of Faith

For an expanded view of our beliefs, please see the Baptist Faith and Message which we hold to in its entirety. Our Family Church bylaws are a reflection of the Baptist Faith and Message.

What We Believe About The Bible

We believe that the Bible is the absolute Truth and God’s final authority. We believe both the Old and New Testament is the inerrant, verbally inspired, and infallible Word of God.

What We Practice Through The Authority Of The Bible

We accept the Bible as our manual for living. Our first question when faced with a decision is, “What does the Bible say?” We practice Bible reading, Bible study, and Bible memorization. The Bible is the basis for all we believe.

What We Believe About God And The Trinity

We believe that there is one true living God who is revealed to us as the Godhead existing eternally in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and that these three are as one God. We believe that God the Father orders all things according to His own purpose for His own glory. We believe that God the Son is Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born without sin of the Virgin Mary to redeem man from sin. We believe that God the Holy Spirit is sent from God to convict of sin and righteousness, and to be an indwelling guide, teacher, and source of strength for the believer. We believe that all who receive Christ as Savior are born of the Holy Spirit.

What We Believe About Salvation Of Man Through Jesus

We believe that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone and the atonement and forgiveness He extended to us on the cross. We believe that man was created in the image of God, that man sinned (rebelled against God) and because of the fall, incurred both a physical death and a spiritual death (eternal separation from God). We believe that all human beings are born with a sinful nature. We believe that all who call upon the name of the Lord as Savior will be saved and will spend eternity with God.

What We Practice Through The Ordinance Of Baptism

We practice baptism by immersion under water—the way Jesus was baptized and the way the Bible commands. Being a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

What We Believe About All Believers

The Bible tells us that every believer is a minister. We encourage every member to find a place of service and ministry. Every believer has direct access to God through prayer and Bible reading.

What We Practice Through The Spirit-Led Life

We believe that the only way possible to live the Christian life is through God’s power within us. We seek to practice a daily dependence on God’s Spirit leading and enabling us to follow God’s Word.

What We Practice Through the Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper

We observe the Lord’s Supper as a symbolic act of obedience. Baptized members of the church remember the death of Jesus and anticipate His second coming through sharing in the Lord’s Supper.

What We Believe About the Church and the Believer

We believe that a New Testament church is an association of baptized believers. We come together through worship, small groups, and service. As the body of Christ, the church, we have diversity in our gifts and unity in our beliefs. We believe that every believer is called to a holy life of service and should belong to a Bible-believing local church for fellowship and for the furtherance of the Gospel to every person at home and around the globe.

What We Practice Through the Autonomy of the Local Church

Christ – not a person, group, or religious organization – is the recognized head of the church. We practice self-government and independence from any denominational control and team up with a network of like-minded churches for greater impact. Each congregation determines its own strategy, structure, and style.

What We Practice Through Giving

We practice tithing as an act of worship to our Savior and Lord. We recognize that tithing 10% of our income is the starting point, and giving above and beyond that is our privilege.

What We Practice Through Sharing the Gospel

We practice sharing Christ personally as we exemplify the life of Christ and verbalize the Gospel. It is the responsibility of every Christian to share the Good News of the Gospel with those whom God brings across our path. Of course, we also like to invite friends to church.

Our Network

Although we exist as an autonomous congregation, we understand the power of connecting and cooperating with other gospel-centered churches and organizations. To that end, we are part of a nationwide network of over 40,000 churches called the Southern Baptist Convention. We partner together to do some amazing things. For example, our network sponsors over 5,000 missionaries who are sharing the love and message of Jesus globally. We work together to plant new churches in major cities across the U.S., operate the second largest disaster relief organization in North America, and have created seminaries to train new generations of leaders for churches around the world. We are excited about the power of this network to exponentially increase the impact of our church.

First, husband to Kristin, next father to James (Reilly), Daniel (Mary-Madison), Jeremiah, Isaac, Stephen, Anna Kate, Mary Claire, and Caleb, grandfather to James VI, Willow Kate, and Wyatt, and then lead pastor of Family Church. We are dedicated to building families in South Florida through a network of neighborhood churches. Our vision is to see each of our campuses on mission to help people in their neighborhoods discover and pursue God’s design. Together we will reach South Florida with the gospel.

Family Church is on mission to make disciples of Jesus in the places where we live, work and play. We are continuing a legacy of people committed to taking the gospel—the good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and raised from the dead—to the ends of the earth. Our neighborhood churches have been launched by a group of courageous individuals who are willing to make disciples. We were founded as the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach in 1901 when there were fewer than 1,000 people living in the city. A small group met first in a home, then in the city’s reading room and then in a donated building on Clematis Street. As the church grew, we changed locations and acquired buildings and property to accommodate the growth. Beginning in 2010, we began pursuing a strategy of putting a neighborhood church in a neighborhood building with a neighborhood pastor who speaks the neighborhood language. Plus, we are adding neighborhood schools. We are joining God in His relentless pursuit of every person in every neighborhood in South Florida and beyond.