A Century and Three Decades on Bethlehem Church Road
Bethlehem Baptist Church sits on a quiet road that takes its name from the congregation itself. On October 19, 1895, fifteen charter members gathered to establish the church, and the same fellowship has been meeting on Bethlehem Church Road in Youngsville, North Carolina ever since. The 131st Annual Homecoming Service, held each fall, marks that unbroken thread: generations of the same community returning to the same place to remember God's faithfulness and to look forward together. That long continuity, more than anything else, defines Bethlehem.
The church is associated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and holds to the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message as a summary of its convictions. Members describe their faith as rooted in Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and they treat the Holy Scriptures as the sole authority for faith and practice. From that foundation, the church reaches both locally, into Youngsville and the greater Triangle area, and globally through missions teaching, support, and prayer.
A Pastoral Transition with Seasoned Leadership
Bethlehem is presently in a season of pastoral transition. A Pastor Search Committee has been working since May to call a full-time senior pastor, and in the meantime the church invited Allan Blume to serve as Transitional Interim Pastor. He began in August 2025, bringing more than fifty years of Baptist ministry with him.
Allan is a North Carolina native. Over the course of his career he has pastored in Texas, Oklahoma, Charlotte, and Boone, where he served Mount Vernon Baptist Church for more than sixteen years. He also served as executive editor and later president of the Biblical Recorder for eight years, retiring from that role in May 2019, and he completed a three-year term as president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina's board of directors as well as a term as president of the North Carolina Pastors' Conference. He currently serves churches and pastors in transitional interim ministry through the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
The pastoral team also includes Steve Davis, who continues to lead the adult Bible study on Wednesday evenings, and Stephen, the church's Youth Pastor. Stephen came to faith ministry through a roundabout path: he grew up moving around the East Coast, majored in Aviation Maintenance Management at Liberty University, and then completed a Master of Divinity at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2020, where he met his wife Shelby. Shelby holds a Doctorate of Education and serves as Director of Dual Enrollment at Southeastern, and the couple were expecting their first child in the fall of 2026. Stephen works days as a Business Manager at a local automotive repair center in Youngsville and carries a vision for a gospel-centered, disciple-equipping local church.
Sunday Mornings: Bible Study, Sunday School, and Worship
The weekly Sunday schedule runs from 10:00 AM to noon. Bible study and Sunday school meet first, followed by the worship service, so a single morning brings the whole congregation together around the Word. Visitors are welcome to slip in at any point, and the spirit is unhurried and devotional rather than staged.
The music program reflects Bethlehem's deep Baptist roots. Kim Pace has served as Music Director for more than twenty years, and Bethlehem has been a part of her life since she first came to the church as a young child with her grandfather. A graduate of Zebulon High School, N.C. State University, and East Carolina University, Kim works as a curriculum resource teacher at Bunn High School by day and leads the congregation in hymn singing each Sunday, often pointing to her favorite, Victory in Jesus, as a song that names an already-won victory.
Special Sundays throughout the year carry their own traditions. There are quarterly Communion services, an Easter Cantata, a Hanging of the Greens service in late November, a 5th Sunday Sing devoted to congregational praise, baby dedications on Mother's Day, recognition services for veterans and graduates, baptisms several times a year, and the annual Homecoming service each October that brings together former pastors, members, and friends for one of the longest-running gatherings of its kind in the area.
Wednesday Nights Around the Table
Wednesday is the second rhythm of the week at Bethlehem. The evening begins at 6:00 PM with a free meal prepared by volunteers from the congregation. Anyone is welcome to come, sit down, and eat - there is no cost and no expectation. The meal is also the setting where the adults and students of the church naturally cross paths before they split off into their own studies.
At 7:00 PM the adults gather for an ongoing Bible study led by the pastor, and at the same hour students from sixth grade through college head to the Student Center for Gravity, the church's flagship student ministry. Child care is provided for children in fifth grade and younger during the Bible study hour, so parents can stay engaged without worry.
It is a simple rhythm - meal, Word, fellowship - but it is the backbone of the church's week. Many of the deeper conversations, prayer concerns, and decisions that shape Bethlehem's life happen around that Wednesday table.
Children, Students, and the Next Generation
Bethlehem takes seriously the work of forming the next generation in the faith. Children's ministry includes a nursery for the youngest and a "wee church" for early elementary children, both staffed by volunteers from the congregation. The children's choir, led for many years by a volunteer named Louisa, sings regularly in worship and at Christmas and Easter, learning well-known hymns and gospel songs such as Old Time Religion, Little Drummer Boy, and Do You See What I See? The children's choir is one of the most visible parts of Bethlehem's life, and the children themselves often lead the congregation in praise.
For older students, the Gravity program on Wednesday evenings provides teaching, fellowship, and mentoring for young people from sixth grade through college. Under Stephen's leadership, Gravity aims to be the kind of student ministry that helps young people read their Bibles on their own, talk honestly about life, and root their identity in Christ rather than in the surrounding culture. Youth also participate in broader church life through Sunday school, special services, and seasonal outreach events.
Music That Has Always Been Home
Music at Bethlehem is generational. Kim Pace speaks of the church as being "just as much home" to her as her own house, and the music program reflects that long familiarity. Choir, children's choir, handbells, piano, and special music all have a place in the calendar.
Advent services include the lighting of candles each week and culminate in a Christmas Eve celebration. Easter is marked by a cantata presentation that walks the congregation through the resurrection story. Ordination services, baby dedications, baptisms, and Communion Sundays each carry their own musical shape, and the 5th Sunday Sing turns the whole service into congregational praise.
The result is a worship style that is plainly traditional Baptist in character: hymns, choir, responsive readings, expository preaching, and a steady reverence for the Lord's Day. Visitors who grew up in similar churches will recognize it instantly, and visitors who did not will find it clear, warm, and easy to follow.
Reaching Youngsville and Beyond
Bethlehem's commitment to its community runs alongside its commitment to global missions. The most visible local outreach is the Feed the Hungry food drive, an ongoing effort to fill a food barrel in the church vestibule with canned goods and non-perishable items. The donations are delivered to Care and Share in Youngsville, a local food ministry that serves neighbors facing hard times. Members are invited to bring items every week they attend.
Each spring the church hosts a community dinner and Open House designed to gather people from the surrounding area whom the congregation might not otherwise cross paths with. The evening is built around a shared meal, fellowship, and the Gospel, and it reflects Bethlehem's conviction that the church's mission is not only to send missionaries to the nations but also to serve the neighbors right outside the door. Throughout the year the church also takes part in ministries to the homeless whenever doors are opened.
Beyond Youngsville, Bethlehem supports missions teaching and prayer for unreached people in America and around the world. Sermon series and adult studies have walked through passages such as Matthew 28 - the Great Commission - and the church periodically invites missionaries and ministry representatives to share during Sunday services, including a recent visit from a representative of Gideons International.
What Bethlehem Believes
Bethlehem's stated beliefs flow directly from the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. There is one living and true God, infinite in holiness and all other perfections, who reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - distinct in person but one in essence and being. The church confesses the full humanity and deity of Jesus Christ: His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, vicarious suffering, atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension to the Father, and personal future return in power and glory.
The Bible is received as the written record of God's revelation to humanity, written by men divinely inspired, with God as its author, salvation as its end, and truth without mixture of error as its matter. Jesus Christ's life and ministry are the lens through which Scripture is read.
Bethlehem also affirms the historic Baptist distinctives of the Priesthood of the Believer and Soul Competency - that every believer is free to approach God directly, to interpret Scripture under the Holy Spirit's leadership, and to discern God's will for their own life. Baptism by immersion is practiced as a symbol of the believer's death to sin and resurrection to new life, and is a prerequisite for church membership and the Lord's Supper. Communion is open to all who have publicly professed faith in Christ and been baptized, regardless of their church membership.
The church confesses the resurrection of both the saved and the lost, the autonomy of the local church under the Holy Spirit's leadership, religious freedom and the separation of church and state, and the spiritual unity of all believers in Christ. Witnessing - telling others of God's love and forgiveness through Jesus - is the responsibility of every believer.
Joining the Family
Visitors who want to get a feel for Bethlehem before coming in person can watch services livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube. The church also keeps an extensive archive of recorded sermons and special services, organized by date, speaker, and Scripture text, on its sermons page.
Anyone considering a visit, a baptism, or a decision to follow Christ is invited to reach out through the church's contact page. There is room at the table on Wednesday nights, room in the pews on Sunday mornings, room in the children's choir, room around the food barrel in the vestibule, and room in the long story that Bethlehem has been writing since 1895.