Andrews Memorial Baptist Church stands at 301 West Elm Street in Graham, North Carolina, with a motto that defines its ministry: “Loving God. Loving Neighbors.” The church is known for Bible-centered worship, weekly prayer, global mission support, and ministries for children, adults, seniors, and families. A second Graham ministry, Andrews Memorial Readiness School, operates at 303 West Elm Street, while Camp Deer Lake in Mebane provides space for summer camps, retreats, and Christian gatherings.
Loving God, Then Loving the Neighbor
AMBC describes worship as the devotion of the heart to what matters most and as an expression of a person's values, not simply a feeling, ritual, or church meeting. The church teaches that people spend every day of life worshiping something. That makes worship a personal and daily matter, while the weekly gathering gives believers a specific time to seek, surrender, and express love to God together.
The central command is Jesus' instruction to love God with all of one's heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love a neighbor as oneself. AMBC understands the first part of that command as the cure for self-centered worship. Church becomes important because it directs the heart toward God in an intimate encounter and gathers a community of believers to encourage one another. Worship, in this understanding, is an act of giving God the focus and devotion He deserves.
The second part of the command carries worship beyond the church building. The church wants people to know Jesus and to share His heart with neighbors. Its claim is practical: love for God changes love for people, so worship continues when a community of believers extends the love of Christ to those around them.
Two Sunday Gatherings Centered on the Word
Sunday worship begins at 10:00 a.m. with Morning Worship and continues with Evening Worship at 5:00 p.m. Both gatherings are at Andrews Memorial Baptist Church on West Elm Street. The two services provide room for the church family to gather, hear the Bible taught, sing, and respond together.
The services intentionally emphasize God's Word. In each service, the congregation engages its Bibles with verse-by-verse exposition to explore God's message and its application to life. The approach treats preaching as Bible instruction rather than a performance built on personality or technique alone.
Music also has an important role. AMBC gathers singers, musicians, and speakers in service of the congregation's unified surrender to God's glory. The church is deliberate that meetings are not entertainment or a showcase for performers. The service format is intended to flow from the commandment to love God and to express that love by loving one another.
AMBC also says worship cannot be contained within the walls of a church building. The Sunday gathering is presented as one expression of a daily devotion: men, women, boys, and girls gather as a community of believers, then carry love for God into the community around them. The purpose of meeting together is both to worship Jesus and to encourage one another to love as Jesus commanded.
Mission Reports and Prayer on Wednesday
The weekly Wednesday Prayer Service begins at 6:00 p.m. A weekly mission report brings updates from missionaries serving around the world and at home. The service ends with prayer, linking the church's intercession to the work it supports. This weekly rhythm places missions and prayer beside the Sunday preaching of God's Word rather than treating either as a separate activity.
A Mission Field That Begins Next Door
AMBC defines mission as sharing the gospel of Jesus with all peoples, using the authority Jesus gave in Matthew 28:18-20 to teach, baptize, and make disciples. The church stresses that the gospel was never meant to be confined inside a church building. The mission field begins with the person next door and extends to the ends of the earth. Mission belongs to every believer, and the church describes the work as something done together, whether members go, send, or support those in the field.
The church's mission strategy includes foreign missionaries in the Balkans, Brazil, Cambodia, China, France, Finland, Honduras, Lithuania, Mexico, Micronesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Scotland, South Africa, and Syria. Home mission partners serve in Georgia, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alamance County. Andrews Memorial provides monthly financial support and daily prayer for more than 30 missionaries and mission organizations.
The church also wants to hear from followers of Jesus who are preparing to serve full time in the mission field. It invites them to share their story and seeks to help them pursue the calling, reinforcing the idea that mission belongs to the church as a whole rather than only to a small group.
These partnerships include church planting, discipleship, and ministry to people experiencing homelessness, prisoners, orphans, and students. Local ministry also includes door-to-door visitation and nursing home outreach. The connection between a mission report at Wednesday prayer and visible work in Graham and Alamance County is a defining part of the church's life.
AMBC's first missionary was Bernice Johnson, a registered nurse sent to Haiti in the early years of the church's ministry. She worked in a mercy clinic that offered medicine for physical ailments and Scripture for spiritual needs. Her heart went especially to abandoned children whom families had left by the roadside. The church sent $40 each month for her support; Bernice said that amount afforded a comfortable life for the people she served. Even as her health, eyesight, and hearing declined in retirement, she remained deeply concerned for Haiti. She recalled, “I know my eyesight has been gone for a long time, but still every time I close my eyes I see the people of the land that needs me. I long to be back there. I did what I could.”
Readiness School: Developing the Whole Child
Andrews Memorial Readiness School, at 303 West Elm Street, provides childcare and preschool education from infancy through K4. It is open Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Enrollment begins with a nursery class for children from six weeks old, followed by age-based toddler, two-year-old, three-year-old, and K4 groups.
The school's mission is to develop each child's mental, physical, social, and spiritual life in a loving, caring, and safe environment. Daily Bible lessons and stories with age-appropriate application are central. The school also emphasizes the whole child, a controlled but relaxed atmosphere, outreach to homes when needed, and continuing professional training for staff. Its stated goal is for children to develop confidence, competence, and Christian compassion.
The school places particular importance on the home and says it supports parents who value traditional family development. Its willingness to reach into a home when needed and its invitation to families to join Sunday and Wednesday children's programs connect the school closely with the life of Andrews Memorial.
Academic instruction uses the A Beka Book curriculum within the playschool. Two-year-olds encounter letters and numbers one through ten. Three-year-olds work with numbers one through fifteen, vowel and consonant sounds, and tracing. K4 children count and write numbers through twenty and study phonics, including short and long vowels, simple consonants, blending, and one- and two-vowel words.
A medical report and updated immunizations are required for attendance. Medication requires appropriate written authorization, and the school's health procedures include provisions for rest and outdoor play. Families seeking a place may request placement on the waiting list, which does not by itself guarantee enrollment.
Camp Deer Lake: God's Creation as a Classroom
Camp Deer Lake began from a vision of Dr. Tommy Willis, who wanted young people to get away from the rush of everyday life and experience the blessings of God's creation in a distinctly Christian environment. The camp opened in 1981 and now occupies more than 140 acres between Greensboro and Durham. Its address is 550 Chapel Trail in Mebane.
A nine-acre lake, ball field, picnic areas, miniature golf course, 60-foot pool with bath house, and multipurpose gymnasium provide space for recreation and group activity. The camp can accommodate up to 192 campers in air-conditioned boys' and girls' dormitories. A commercially equipped kitchen prepares camper meals, while the dining hall and chapel are both air-conditioned.
Creation, recreation, food, and gathering space all serve that purpose. The air-conditioned chapel gives groups a place to focus on God, while the dormitories, pool, athletic facilities, picnic areas, and miniature golf give campers room to build community together.
Camp Deer Lake hosts summer youth camps, year-round retreats, and special events for people of all ages. Whether a group is attending for the first time or returning for further Christian growth, the stated aim is to help boys, girls, men, and women take the next spiritual step, whether that means salvation or growth.
Ministry for Children, Families, Adults, and Seniors
Children ages 3 to 13 meet in Kids Clubs on Wednesday evenings. Proteens serves young people ages 13 to 17, and Sunday School programs are available for the whole family. The church also has a Young Adult Fellowship that meets for a meal and activities every other month for young singles and couples.
Adults and older friends have regular gatherings of their own. Golden Agers brings senior saints ages 55 and older together in the Activity Building on the second Thursday of each month. Ladies Fellowship meets every other month in the Reception Hall. Men's Prayer Fellowship gathers for breakfast and prayer on the first Sunday of each month in the Activity Building.
These groups sit alongside the church's wider work: weekly worship and Bible study, worldwide missions, door-to-door visitation, nursing home ministry, and a Saturday morning radio broadcast on WBAG from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. The variety allows church members to take part in teaching, prayer, service, fellowship, and mission at different stages of life.
A Musical Heritage Kept in Song
The church preserves a substantial collection of downloadable recordings. Albums feature the Andrews Memorial Baptist Church Choir, Frankie Isley with the choir, The Rainbow Trio, and The Praise Trio. The collection also includes messages by Dr. Eugene Hancock and Dr. Tommy Willis. These recordings preserve the musical voices and preaching associated with the congregation's life and worship.
Ways to Hear the Message
Live worship is available through the church's live service. Access to each service requires registration, and the registration link and reminder are sent to the email address provided. The live stream can be viewed with Google Chrome on a desktop or laptop, or through a linked app for iOS or Android devices.
The weekly message is also available in audio form through the sermon archive, where messages can be found by preacher, series, topic, biblical book, or service type. People unable to use the live stream or audio archive can call the church office at (336) 228-7801 and select extension 7 to hear the Sunday message by telephone. The weekly broadcast is also carried on WBAG Saturday mornings from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.
What Andrews Memorial Believes
The church's stated convictions begin with the authority of the Holy Scripture and belief in the one true God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Human beings are sinful and lost by nature and choice, while salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. Righteous living and godly works are part of that life of faith.
AMBC also believes in the existence of Satan, the second coming of Christ, and a future life with bodily resurrection and eternal judgment. It affirms the separation of church and state, the priesthood of all believers, the lordship of Jesus Christ, and the importance of the local church. The independence and autonomy of the local church are likewise affirmed. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are identified as the two ordinances given to the local church.
The church connects its teaching with gathered worship, the two ordinances, love for neighbors, and the mission to share the gospel.
Brandon Rouse and a Calling Formed in Community
Pastor Brandon Rouse describes a faith that began in his childhood. At a small country church, a visiting speaker spoke plainly about hell and the need for a Savior. That afternoon, Brandon asked Jesus to forgive him and save him. He later understood that Jesus had called him to vocational ministry while he was in high school.
College in Florida equipped Brandon for ministry and brought him together with Melina, whom he married after graduate school. They settled in Burlington, where Jesus led them to Andrews Memorial. Both served in children's and youth ministry while Brandon studied in seminary. Their work included long summers at Camp Deer Lake, experiences Brandon says were worth every moment because that was where God had led them. Today, Brandon serves as pastor of Andrews Memorial Baptist Church.
His story fits the larger character of the church: a people built around the Word, gathered in worship, active in prayer, committed to mission, and organized to serve people from infancy through retirement. Andrews Memorial continues that shared life in Graham through Sunday and Wednesday gatherings, its school and camp ministries, and its insistence that love for God becomes love for neighbors.