Christian Faith Missionary Baptist Church sits on Jefferson Drive in Port Arthur, Texas, where it is known for the gospel music and praise dance that fill its sanctuary and for the practical care that fills its weekdays: a food pantry that has served Port Arthur families since 2014, a youth house, marriage classes, a grief support group and ministry teams that gather nearly every weeknight. Senior Pastor Albert Moses, Jr. and Executive Pastor Charlotte Moses lead the congregation, and the church describes itself as a Bible-based church blessed by God to share the love of Jesus Christ with all people through the guidance of the Holy Ghost.
Growing in Fellowship, Grace and Love
The church's purpose is stated plainly: to grow in fellowship, grow in grace and grow in love, so that God may be glorified and His people edified. Its mission commits the congregation to sharing faith in Jesus Christ through obedience to His Word, His Will and His Way.
Those aims are rooted in scripture, and the church traces its core values to Acts 2:42-47:
- Outreach into the community
- Worship of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ
- Fellowship within the membership
- Discipleship of the lost
- Ministry that meets the need of the total people with excellence
That last value is visible across Port Arthur. One congregation runs a food pantry, a youth ministry, a marriage ministry, women's and men's fellowships, a praise dance team, an ushers and greeters team, a leaders team and GriefShare support groups, with regular gatherings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
What Christian Faith Believes
Christian Faith sets out its convictions without hedging. The church believes in the triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, holds that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, and affirms that Jesus Christ is true God and true man. All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and the church believes the Bible is a collection of 66 books written over roughly 1,500 years by 40 authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, written without error or contradiction.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God and need salvation, and salvation has been provided through Jesus Christ for all people. Salvation is by grace through Christ, the only way to eternal life in heaven, and it is a free gift of God that cannot be earned through works of the flesh. The church holds that it is the will of God that every believer be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that healing is provided in the redemptive work of Christ and available to every believer.
The church is described as a local called out assembly of baptized believers associated by a covenant of faith and fellowship of the Gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ: water baptism and the Lord's Supper. Christian Faith also looks ahead to a bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust and to the personal, visible and imminent return of Jesus Christ. The mission of the church, it says, is to carry out the great commission, first to win the lost, second to baptize them and third to teach and instruct them.
Pastor Albert Moses, Jr.: Called in 1994, Pastor in 2000
Albert Moses, Jr. grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where as a child he first preached in the yard of the house he was raised in, his one-member congregation being his sister. He graduated from Lincoln High School in 1974 and from Lamar University with a B.S. in 1978. He earned an M.A. from Prairie View A&M University in 1984 and a med degree in 1986, and he attended the Southeast Texas Extension of American Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee.
In June 1994 he heard the voice of God and humbly accepted the call. He was licensed to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ on March 28, 1999, and ordained in January 2000. That February he became pastor of Greater Mount Corinth Missionary Baptist Church in Kountze, Texas. In November 2003 he took the pulpit at Christian Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Port Arthur, and the family describes that move as the beginning of his shift from preacher to Christian entrepreneur. Pastor Moses and Pastor Charlotte left their long-held jobs to found Love At Work Academy, Inc., known as L.A.W. Academy, a ministry giving court-ordered probated youth a second chance at success through truancy prevention, gang awareness, substance abuse awareness and character education. The name carries the idea: where love is the law.
Pastor Moses is described as a husband, father, entrepreneur, business and community leader whose teaching makes lives whole, whose preaching transforms souls and whose evangelistic initiatives carry the word of God. He and Pastor Charlotte have been married for 30 years and have four children, among them Rev. Albert III and Minister Ashton Moses.
Pastor Charlotte Moses and Work That Reaches Beyond the Church
Pastor Charlotte Moses serves as Executive Pastor alongside her husband. She preaches and teaches, and her work has extended well beyond the sanctuary. She founded and directs Christian Faith Women of Virtue, Inc., a ministry that encourages women, including future first ladies, and equips them to seek God in the ordinary events of life. Out of that calling grew the Diamond Conference, first held in August 2008 to glorify, edify and magnify the Lord and to instill in women a sense of self-worth and a love for Christ that no one could take away.
She is also co-founder of Love At Work Academy and of Global Drug and Alcohol Solutions, Inc., a drug and alcohol testing center. She serves on the Port Arthur City Council at large, Position 7, and has served on advisory boards with the city and the Golden Triangle. Pastor Charlotte holds a Bachelor of Bible Theology and a Master of Theology from Midwest Seminary of Bible Theology in Sikeston, Missouri. Her own charge to the congregation is simple: God is the source of all good things and deserves all praise and honor for his name.
Gospel Music, Hymns and Praise Dance
The music ministry's aim is to bring people into praise and worship of the Father through anointed music and to create an atmosphere of true worship in which the Holy Spirit can dwell in the sanctuary. The choir sings from different genres of gospel music to reach the lost and to keep hearts anchored in Jesus, drawing on psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to prepare the congregation for the Word. The music ministry meets on Mondays from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The praise dance ministry serves the same congregation in movement. Its purpose is to draw people to Christ through dance and to show that God can be given glory, honor and praise through movement. The team works from Psalm 149:3-4: Let them praise His name with the dance; let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he will beautify the humble with salvation. Members of the team say there is power in movement, which stirs the senses and emotions and can carry a message that words or song alone cannot, and they see dancing as another form of worship and a sweet-smelling aroma.
F.I.Y.A. Youth, the L.I.F.T. Team and Sunday School
The church reaches students through F.I.Y.A., short for Fire In Your Anointing. The mission of the youth ministry is to impact students with the gospel of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and to give young people and their friends a place to learn about God and serve the community. F.I.Y.A. House youth sponsors meet periodically on Mondays at 6:30 p.m.
Behind the pulpit, the Leaders In Faith Team, or L.I.F.T., is the support structure that keeps the church moving. L.I.F.T. is a consolidation of groups of born-again, spirit-filled individuals who form a nucleus around the pastor and his assistants, taking on the operational demands of the ministry and the spiritual needs of the people who take part in worship, study and social life at Christian Faith.
Sunday school teaching is built around a comprehensive study of the Bible, educating students on the principles and philosophies stated in Scripture, with the aim of instilling faith in God and teaching the principles Christ adhered to. Every Sunday morning, the class meets for group study on the word of God.
Women of Virtue, Men of Valor and Christ-Centered Marriages
The Women of Virtue gather every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. to strengthen the sisterhood of the church and community, empowering and equipping women through education, exhortation and edification. They share ways of applying God's word to everyday experiences, teach the meaning of intercessory prayer and worship the Lord together.
The Men of Valor also meet on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m., with the purpose of building the body of Christ and empowering men by strengthening the brotherhood of the church and community. The Men of Valor describe their work as standing in the gap on behalf of men everywhere, serving, protecting, leading and mentoring with the guidance of God's word.
The Marriage Ministry meets every fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. Its goal is warm and nurturing, Christ-centered relationships built through the word of God, teaching couples to set goals and prepare a comprehensive plan that covers health, finances, recreation and travel. Couples study the word of God and God's purpose for marriage, share and strengthen their marriages, and refresh, revive and enrich them.
Charlotte's Cupboard: One Family at a Time
Charlotte's Cupboard is the church's most visible work in the city. The feeding program began on the third Saturday of June 2014 and has continued to serve the Port Arthur community ever since, and the pantry also serves by appointment when families face an emergency. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit food pantry open to the community and has established a partnership with Southeast Texas Food Bank, with a simple commitment behind it: no family will be left hungry.
The pantry's vision is to eliminate hunger and inadequate nutrition in Southeast Texas one family at a time, and its guiding text is Matthew 25:35-36 and 40, where Jesus says that giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, a welcome to the stranger, clothing to the naked, a visit to the sick and attention to those in prison is the same as caring for him.
GriefShare and the Deacon Team
GriefShare is another way the church meets people in hard seasons. It is a friendly, caring group that walks alongside people through one of life's most difficult experiences, and the groups meet weekly to help participants face the challenges of grieving and move toward rebuilding their lives. The church offers GriefShare in three 13-week sessions.
Day to day, the work is carried by a sizable deacon team. Deacons are described as spiritual leaders and shepherds who serve as teachers and provide general oversight on financial, organizational and spiritual matters, which frees the elders to focus on prayer, studying God's word and pastoral care. Deacon Jonathan Jacquet, Deacon Eric Shepard, Deacon Joseph Soileau, Deacon Rene Jackson, Deacon Gary Ellas and Deacon Javier Mendez serve alongside Chairman John Parker and Assistant Chairman Henry Jones, Jr.
Giving, Livestreamed Worship and Staying in Touch
Giving is structured around both the church's regular practices and special purposes: tithes, offerings, first fruit, the Sacred Heart offering, the pastor's love offering, a building fund and conference giving. The church frames its giving with Malachi 3:10, asking the Lord to open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to hold it. Giving is available online, with the Cash App name $cfmbcPAT and an Easy Tithe phone number at (409) 292-5228.
Worship is livestreamed on Facebook, and the church also shares a weekly message from the pastor that pairs a scripture with a short teaching and a prayer. The congregation can be reached at 1919 Jefferson Drive, Port Arthur, TX 77642, by phone at (409) 962-9792 or by email at info@cfmbc.org.
A Church Still Growing in Grace
Christian Faith Missionary Baptist Church remains a family-led, Bible-based congregation on Jefferson Drive in Port Arthur, where the music keeps loud, the pantry door stays open and the ministries keep meeting through the week. Pastor Albert Moses, Jr. and Pastor Charlotte Moses continue to lead a church that grows in fellowship, in grace and in love, taking that purpose into the city one family, one student and one conversation at a time.