Tucked along North Abbe Road in Elyria, Ohio, just across from Lorain County Community College, College Heights Baptist Church has been a steady presence in northern Ohio for decades. Its tagline, printed under the name, is three words: reach, grow, serve. Those three words shape everything from the Sunday schedule to the backpack ministry that has distributed dozens of supplies to students across Lorain County. Under the long pastorate of Dr. Darrell Deer, who arrived in February 1999, the congregation has settled into a clear, predictable rhythm of worship, prayer, Bible study, and service to the surrounding community.
Reach, Grow, Serve
The motto reach, grow, serve is more than decoration. The church organizes its life around those three verbs. Reach is the outward movement, the desire to share the gospel with neighbors and to support mission work beyond Elyria. Grow is the inward movement, the Bible study and small group life that deepens faith. Serve is the hands-and-feet movement, the volunteers who clean the building, run the sound booth, greet visitors, and fill backpacks for students who need them. The congregation describes itself as a family of believers who come from various communities around Northern Ohio. Their common bond, the church says, is that they have been touched by God's love and saved and redeemed by Him.
Sundays at 9:30 and 10:30
Sunday is the anchoring day of the week. At 9:30 in the morning, small group Bible studies meet for every age. Currently there are four classes: preschoolers, grade-schoolers, teenagers, and adults working through the Explore the Bible curriculum. An hour later, at 10:30, the whole church gathers for the morning worship service, which lasts somewhere between an hour and an hour and fifteen minutes. The bulletin reflects the same shape each week. A recent Sunday included a call to worship, two Scripture readings from 1 Samuel 15:22 and Psalm 117, congregational singing, prayer, another congregational song, the sermon, a benediction, and a closing. The 10:30 gathering is the main weekly worship of the church and is livestreamed on the church's Facebook page for those who cannot attend in person.
Wednesday Evenings at 6:45
Wednesday prayer at 6:45 p.m. is the midweek touchstone. Members and friends gather at the building to pray together, a simple pattern that complements the teaching and singing of Sunday morning. In addition to the evening prayer time, a Wednesday morning Bible study runs at 10:00 a.m. for those whose schedules fit better earlier in the day. Together, the two Wednesday gatherings make the church's teaching and prayer life a five-day-a-week reality rather than a one-day-a-week event.
What Sunday Morning Looks Like
First-time visitors often wonder what to wear and what to expect. The church answers plainly. On a typical Sunday, people dress in everything from a polo shirt and jeans to a coat and tie, though the majority dress fairly casual. Visitors are encouraged to come as they are most comfortable. Greeters are stationed throughout the entrance area to help newcomers find their way. The building is well signed, and the people are eager to point visitors in the right direction.
The worship service itself is a mix of music, Scripture, prayer, and preaching. Most of the music is fairly contemporary, though the congregation sings a hymn or two every Sunday as well, giving the gathering a blended feel that bridges modern songs and traditional ones. A typical Sunday stays in the sixty to seventy-five minute range, which makes it manageable for families with young children and for older members who prefer a shorter time in the pew.
Pastor Dr. Darrell Deer
Dr. Darrell Deer is the pastor of College Heights Baptist Church. He came to the church in February 1999 and has served there for more than twenty-five years. He is a graduate of Carson-Newman College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Religion, of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he earned the Master of Divinity, and of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he completed his Doctor of Ministry. He and his wife Anita have three grown and married children and ten grandchildren. Members of the congregation can reach him at darrellchbc@gmail.com.
Pastor Deer preaches most Sundays. His preaching rotation has included long, sustained series through books of the Bible. Over the years the congregation has walked with him through Hebrews, the Psalms, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, James, Jonah, Revelation, Acts, Nehemiah, Isaiah, John, Esther, and more, often tracing a single book for ten or more weeks at a time. Guest preachers and missionaries fill the pulpit from time to time as well, including Stephen Brooks, Dan Reinhardt, Larry Sadowski, Vince Loseto, Rick Thompson, Jamie Stewart, Brad Shuder, Mark Jones, Bob Gillespie, and Chad Blanton. Youth Sunday is observed annually, with the young people of the church taking a turn at preaching and leading.
The Board of Deacons
The deacons serve the church alongside the pastor. The current deacon body includes Dan Brooks, whose term runs through 2027; Stephen Brooks, the chairman, whose term runs through 2028; Matt Goodrich, also through 2028; and Devin Gabriel, also through 2028. Members are welcome to contact their deacon personally, and the deacons can also be reached through the church office at chbcelyria@gmail.com.
What We Believe
The church's statement of faith centers on the triune God. College Heights affirms that God is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that He is the creator and sustainer of all that is, holy and perfect. Humans, in contrast, are corrupted by sin and separated from God. The church teaches that God's holiness demands payment for sin, but His great love and mercy sent His Son Jesus to die in our place so that we could have a relationship with Him. Jesus, the church confesses, is God who willingly stepped out of heaven to become man, lived a perfect life without sin, died willingly on the cross, and rose triumphantly from the grave. He will return to claim those who are His, raise the dead, judge all, and reign over a new heaven and a new earth.
The Bible, the church teaches, is the divinely inspired, inerrant Word of God and the authoritative guideline for life and practice. Salvation is by grace through faith: people cannot earn their way to God by being good enough or religious enough. To come to God is to repent, to turn from one's own path, and to surrender one's life to Him in saving faith. Salvation is found in Jesus and Him alone. In addition to these distinctives, the church affirms the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the confessional statement of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Church Covenant
Members of College Heights enter into a written covenant with one another. The covenant begins with a profession of faith and baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Members then engage, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love, unity, and purity; to strive by prayer, testimony, and example to influence friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances to a saving faith in Jesus Christ; to watch over one another in brotherly love; to engage in the spiritual disciplines of Bible study and prayer; to be submissive to the authority of God's Word; to respect and pray for the leadership of the church; to be committed in attendance and service; to support the worship, doctrine, mission, and growth of the church in word and deed; to be faithful in exercising spiritual gifts in ministry; and to be responsible in regular giving so that the work and mission of the church may move forward. The covenant also commits members, when they move away, to unite with another church where they can carry out the spirit of the covenant and the principles of God's Word.
Reaching Out Across Lorain County
The reach of the church extends beyond its building into Lorain County. One of the most concrete examples is the Fall backpack distribution, in which the congregation fills seventy-two backpacks with personal hygiene items, school supplies, and other needed items and distributes them to students through local schools and various agencies around the county. The effort is coordinated as a mission and outreach project, a tangible expression of the motto's first word. Children, students, and adults can all take part in packing and distributing the backpacks.
Places to Plug In
Sunday morning small groups are the most obvious way to get connected. Beyond that, the church maintains a long list of service opportunities for people who want to use their gifts. Greeters welcome visitors at the door. Workers with preschoolers, grade-schoolers, and teenagers come alongside the next generation in teaching and care. Adults can plug into the cleaning team, the grounds crew, the audio and visual booth, the fellowship committee, or a variety of other roles. Mission opportunities and kids' events add further options. The church frames the whole list under its three-word motto: opportunities to reach others, to grow closer to the Lord and to one another, and to serve and make a difference.
A Library of Sermons
The church has built an unusually deep archive of sermons that goes back more than fifteen years. Beginning in March 2020, services have been livestreamed on the church's Facebook page, including the sermons. Audio recordings of recent sermons are available, going back to early 2017 and beyond. Older archives extend back to 2009 and earlier. Members who miss a Sunday, or who want to revisit a particular message, can find the recordings easily online. A typical sermon file carries a date and a title, often with the Scripture passage attached, so the archive doubles as an index of the pastor's preaching through the Bible.
Recommended Reading
The church keeps a recommended reading list of books that have shaped its teaching and discipleship. Readers will find Francis Chan titles like Crazy Love, Erasing Hell, Multiply, The Forgotten God, and All In; J.D. Greear's Gospel and Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart; Tim Keller's Counterfeit Gods, The Prodigal God, and The Meaning of Marriage; C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters; David Platt's Radical and Follow Me; Dane Ortlund's Gentle and Lowly; Eric Mason's Manhood Restored; David Murray's Reset; Albert Mohler's The Conviction to Lead; David Powlison's God's Grace in Your Suffering; Gary Thomas's Sacred Marriage; Megan Hill's A Place to Belong; Daniel Akin's Ten Who Changed the World; Timothy George's Amazing Grace; David Jeremiah's What in the World Is Going On?; John MacArthur's Slave; and Thom Rainer's I Am a Church Member. The Christian Standard Bible and the English Standard Version are the two Bible translations the church recommends.
Finding the Building
The church sits at 980 N Abbe Road in Elyria, Ohio, just off the Route 2 and I-90 freeway. From the highway, drivers take the Detroit Road / OH-254 / Ridge Road exit, marked with signs for Avon, and head east to N Abbe. A right turn onto N Abbe leads about half a mile up the road to the church, on the right side, opposite Lorain County Community College. From the south, drivers coming up State Route 57 turn onto N Abbe and find the church on the left-hand side, about a mile and a half to two miles north, also across from the community college. The phone number is 440-365-8302 and the email is chbcelyria@gmail.com. Visitors arriving for the first time can follow the signs and look for the greeters stationed inside the front doors.