Three Sunday Mornings in Youngsville
Faith Baptist Church, often called Faith Youngsville, sits on 249 Holden Road in the town of Youngsville, North Carolina. On a typical Sunday the building opens three times for gathered worship - 8:00 AM, 9:30 AM, and 11:00 AM - and each gathering fills with the same basic pattern: a live band leading songs, a time of prayer, and preaching by one of the pastors or elders. The 9:30 AM service is also livestreamed for those watching from home.
The dress is casual, the people are intentional about greeting newcomers, and a First Time Guest table in the lobby waits with a small gift and a team ready to walk first-time visitors around the campus. Adult Faith Groups meet at all three hours in rooms scattered across the building, so worshipers can pick whichever gathering fits their Sunday rhythm and still join a small group that morning.
Faith en Español
Spanish-speaking members and neighbors gather at Faith under the name Faith en Español. Spanish-speaking small groups meet at 9:30 AM in Room 214, and the Spanish worship gathering convenes there at 11:00 AM. The ministry is pastored by Lenin Almonte as Spanish Ministries Pastor, and Guillermo Rivas serves as the Discipleship Minister for Spanish Ministries, who also coordinates the church's free English-as-a-Second-Language program. Faith en Español maintains its own page and registration flow separate from the English-language ministries.
Faith Kids and the Truth Trackers Program
Children are welcomed into Faith Kids from birth through fifth grade. Nursery and preschool care for infants through four-year-olds is open during all three worship hours, while elementary-aged children join Faith Kids at 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM, where they are placed in groups by age, grade, and gender and led by background-checked volunteers.
On Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 PM during the fall and spring semesters, children four years old through fifth grade take part in Truth Trackers, a Scripture-memory and discipleship curriculum organized around eighteen doctrinal themes and a three-year color cycle (Green, Red, and Blue Year). Children work through a printed Truth Journal each day that pairs meditation on memory verses with devotional application, and the curriculum includes a built-in catechism, incentives for achievement, and an apologetics component to help kids give a reasoned defense of their faith. The structure is intentionally designed so that what a child learns at church on Wednesday can be reinforced at home through family discipleship rhythms.
Faith Students (Grades 6-12)
Faith Students is the middle and high school ministry, pastored by David Dargel (Student Pastor). On Sunday mornings students gather in Room 240 at both 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM and then break into grade-and-gender Faith Groups in rooms 231 through 239. The list of available groups is detailed: 6th Grade Girls, 6th-8th Grade Guys, 7th-8th Grade Girls, 9th Grade Girls, 9th Grade Guys, 10th Grade Guys, 10th-11th Grade Girls, 11th Grade Guys, and a 12th Grade Co-Ed group, with a slightly simpler Middle School Guys, Middle School Girls, and High School Co-Ed lineup at the 11:00 hour.
On Wednesday nights during the fall, winter, and spring semesters (September through May, with a Christmas break), Faith Students MIDWEEK runs from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. Middle schoolers meet in Room 240, high schoolers in Room 214, and the hour includes worship, prayer, and teaching through a book of the Bible. Henry Meyer, Middle School Director, oversees the middle school track. From 8:00 to 8:30 PM the basketball courts and gaga ball pit open for hangout time, weather permitting. Smaller Student D-Groups of two or three students meeting with an adult leader are available throughout the week as a deeper discipleship option.
Adult Discipleship: Faith Groups, D-Groups, and Core Classes
Adult discipleship at Faith is built around three layers. The first is Faith Groups, the church's Sunday-morning small groups that meet during each worship hour. They exist for fellowship, prayer, and Bible study, and the church encourages members and regular attenders to try several before settling into a lasting community. Current examples include the Jeffries Faith Group (ages 50s-60s+, Room 116) and the Smith Faith Group (all ages, Room 112), with rotating leaders and room assignments.
The second layer is D-Groups, which are gender-specific groups of three to five people who meet for focused discipleship and accountability. The third is the Wednesday-night Adult Core Classes, taught by Faith's elders and other leaders - several of whom are Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty - in Room 122 and adjoining rooms from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. Past semester offerings have included the year-long Bible & Theology Cohort led by Dr. Beau Landers, women's studies such as Psalm 119: Treasuring God's Word in All of Life, Dr. Rhyne Putman's Defending the Faith, Dr. Chuck Quarles's The Sermon on the Mount, Dr. John Hammett's Every Member Matters on biblical ecclesiology, and Craig Bowen's 8 Money Milestones financial stewardship course. Selected courses can be taken for seminary credit through SEBTS.
Faith College and Faith Young Adults
Faith College is the ministry for students ages 18 to 25, led by College & Young Adults Minister Jake Hatfield. It meets on Sunday afternoons at 12:30 PM in Room 118 for a time of fellowship and Bible study, with a $5 lunch available. Once a semester the ministry hosts a free dinner for new and current students from Judson College and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, since Faith is a partner church of SEBTS and often draws college-age attenders from both schools.
Faith Young Adults is geared toward singles in their twenties and thirties. They gather on Thursdays at 6:30 PM in Wake Forest, with additional Young Adult Groups meeting on other nights throughout the week.
Faith Men, Faith Women, and Legacy Ministry
Faith Men runs a weekly Bible study, a monthly Saturday breakfast at the church from 8:00 to 9:30 AM, and an annual men's retreat weekend typically held off-site at Ridgecrest Conference Center. Past retreats have featured speakers such as Dr. DJ Horton on themes like "Becoming a Man Who Seeks the Presence of God," with options for father-son registration. Kiersten Lewis leads Faith Women's Ministry, which hosts Bible studies, brunches, event-planning volunteer teams, and seasonal gatherings such as the Faith Women Brunch Scramble that opens the ministry year each August.
Legacy Ministry serves adults 55 and over, encouraging mature believers to invest in the next generation. It meets monthly for a Legacy Ministry Breakfast in the church gym - with speakers, catered meals, and topics like church revitalization - and organizes Legacy Ministry Trips throughout the year. Recent outings have included tours of the Southern Supreme Fruitcake Factory in Siler City, an overnight trip to The Cove's annual Carol Sing at Ridgecrest Conference Center in December, and a multi-day bus trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the following May for a Sight & Sound Theatre production and Amish countryside tour.
Faith NC Worship
Music is led by Faith NC Worship, the church's worship ministry with more than 80 active members spanning high school students to senior adults. The team is led by Stephen Ayers, Music & Technical Director, and led in worship planning by Caleb Oliver since 2021. The band leads a blended mix of contemporary songs and timeless hymns in the three Sunday gatherings, and the team also leads worship at conferences, chapels, and retreats outside the church. The ministry writes and records original worship songs that are released on Spotify and YouTube, and the Sunday morning worship setlist is posted on Spotify so that members can prepare for the gathering by listening ahead. Auditions are required to join as a vocalist or musician.
The 2030 Vision
In January 2018 Faith launched what it calls the 2030 Vision, a set of seven numerical goals built around the question of what could happen if the congregation "fully comprehended the depth of God's love, and were filled with the fullness of God as described in Ephesians 3:14-20." The targets, to be met by the year 2030, are:
- 203,000 Gospel Conversations had by members with non-believers.
- 20,300 Professions of Faith resulting from those conversations.
- 20,300 People Mobilized to serve the community.
- 2,030 People sent out on Mission Trips.
- 203 Leaders trained as pastors, church planters, and missionaries (carried out largely through the Deploy Leader Training internship).
- 30 Churches Revitalized.
- 20 Churches Planted.
The vision shapes almost everything the church does. Discipleship is framed around four verbs - Know, Grow, Serve, and Go - and the Missions, Mobilization, and Deploy ministries exist to push members toward those goals.
Deploy Leader Training
Deploy is a one-year, January-through-December ministry internship for men and women who sense a call to vocational ministry, led by Mobilization Pastor Ben McRoy. It combines academic instruction (Wednesdays 6:00-8:00 PM in Room 122), practical ministry experience, and weekly mentor meetings with Faith staff members. Courses are taught by Faith elders and other leaders, many of them Southeastern faculty, and can be taken for seminary credit through SEBTS. The fall semester offers Pastoral Ministry and Leadership and Ecclesiology and Administration, and the spring semester offers Christian Leadership and Mission and Personal Discipleship and Disciple-making. Deployment tracks are designed for church planters, revitalizers, pastors, and missionaries, and participation requires membership at Faith. The internship is a key pipeline for the 203 leaders, 20 church plants, and 30 revitalizations called for in the 2030 Vision.
Sending Mission Teams to Six Fields
Faith has identified six international and domestic mission fields to which it sends teams on a rotating basis, working through what Ben McRoy oversees as the Mobilization Pastor:
- Canada - partnership with missionaries Hoover and Karen Lee in Vancouver for evangelism and service projects.
- Hungary - partnership with the Hungarian Baptist Union to run English Bible camps in public schools.
- Kentucky (Pike County) - partnership with Josh and Tamia Odom and the Freeda Harris Baptist Center in one of the least-reached areas of Appalachia.
- Massachusetts - partnership with Grace Harbor Church, Neighborhood Churches, and Faith's own urban missionaries Evan and Chelsea West in New Bedford.
- The Netherlands - partnership with missionaries Rob and Katy Darnell reaching the Randstad region (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, The Hague).
- Utah - partnership with Redemption Church North Davis to engage Latter-day Saint neighbors with the gospel.
An annual Missions Lunch & Learn is held at the church for anyone curious about long-term service through the International Mission Board or as a Faith-sent missionary. The church is active with Baptists on Mission, the state missions network of the Southern Baptist Convention's North Carolina entity, and partners with the North Carolina Baptist Convention in disaster relief and church planting.
Food Pantry and Community Outreach
Faith runs a monthly food pantry from its campus at 249 Holden Road. It opens twice a month: once on the first Saturday (typically 9:00 to 11:15 AM) and once on the third Thursday (typically 3:00 to 4:15 PM). Volunteers greet families, distribute food, run a Kids Korner for children waiting with their parents, and - if trained and approved - share the Gospel with clients as they come through the line. The church organizes a separate clothing giveaway called the Fostering Love Clothing Give-Away in the gym, which provides free clothing for foster and single-parent families, and it hosts monthly Foster Parent Recharge evenings that give foster parents three hours of free childcare plus a meal.
Beyond the food pantry, the church hosts a community Easter egg hunt in partnership with the Town of Youngsville, supports National Night Out Youngsville each August, organizes Go Serve Week each summer (a full week of on-campus and off-campus projects that include a Holden Road cleanup, a backpack packing drive, a Health for Her Pregnancy Center delivery, a Raleigh Dream Center Family Night, and a Prison Alliance warehouse work day), and partners with local ministries and the Town of Youngsville throughout the year. Park partnerships, prayer walks in Raleigh for the unborn, and blood drives held in the Youngsville area round out the community calendar.
Faith ESL
Faith ESL is a ministry of Faith's Spanish Ministries that offers free English classes to non-English speakers in the community. Classes meet on Tuesday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 PM during the fall and spring semesters. Registration is $10 per person or $20 per family and includes a student book; childcare is not provided. Volunteers - teachers, classroom assistants, and helpers - are recruited at interest meetings held before each semester, and no foreign language experience is required.
Care, Counseling, and Benevolence
The Care Ministry, pastored by Gary Shugart (Member Care Pastor), provides practical help, prayer, and emotional support during illness, crisis, or family difficulty. Care volunteers prepare meals for those in need, visit the homebound, and connect people with outside resources. A Caregiver Support Group, led by Evelyn Weaver, gives ongoing encouragement to anyone providing regular care for another person.
The Counseling Ministry offers biblical, Gospel-centered counseling for individuals, couples, and families in areas such as grief, crisis, and relational struggles. A team of lay counselors - including Cindy Morris, Dina Cantore, Susan Deese, Robert Hicks, Ami Miano, Evelynn Nelson-Weaver, Dan Ficklin, Katharine Ray, Allie Crumley, Anna-Kate Christian, and Michael Cestaro - meets with clients to apply Scripture to specific areas of suffering. Sessions cost $20 for members and $25 for non-members. The ministry's stated model is a Holy-Spirit-empowered process that emphasizes heart transformation over symptom relief.
The church also runs a Foster Care Ministry focused on Franklin County, where at any given time nearly 50 children are in care and fewer than 5 licensed foster homes are available. Foster Care Interest Lunches introduce prospective foster parents and support volunteers to the work.
Becoming a Member: The Connecting Point Path
Faith takes church membership seriously and outlines five steps for anyone wishing to join. After a profession of faith in Christ and baptism by immersion, candidates attend Connecting Point, a two-and-a-half-hour class taught by the pastors on the first Thursday of every month from 6:00 to 8:30 PM with dinner and childcare provided. After the class, candidates meet briefly with a pastor to review their testimony and sign the church's membership covenant, and they are formally presented to the congregation at one of the bi-annual Members' Rallies, usually held in February and August. The covenant commits members to worship, prayer, fellowship, service, biblical discipline, stewardship, holy living, and the pursuit of the gospel among neighbors and nations.
Facilities Use and Weddings
Faith's campus is used both for church ministry and, when available, for outside groups. Couples interested in holding a wedding at Faith contact the church office at 919-556-3420 to check date availability, after which they meet the officiating pastor (any non-Faith pastor must be vetted and approved), review the wedding policy packet, and meet with the Hospitality Coordinator to finalize arrangements. The church also assists families with funeral services when contacted through the office. Outside groups register for facility use through an online reservation system.
What Faith Believes
Faith describes its doctrinal convictions in detail and refers explicitly to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 as a summary of its closed-handed beliefs. It holds tightly to the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture, to one triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and to the historic Christian understanding of humanity as created in God's image, fallen into sin, and in need of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is explained as the work of God through regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. The church practices believer's baptism by immersion and observes the Lord's Supper; the Lord's Supper is open to any who have trusted in Christ as Savior, whether or not they are members of Faith. A New Testament church is understood as an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers with two ordinances (baptism and the Lord's Supper), governed under the lordship of Christ. Pastors and elders are reserved for qualified men; both men and women are gifted for service in the church.
Faith uses an "open-hand / closed-hand" framework to handle doctrinal disagreements. Closed-handed issues include the deity of Christ, the truthfulness of Scripture, salvation by grace through faith, and the reality of heaven and hell; secondary or open-handed issues such as the timing of end-times events, the style of Christian schooling, and the details of worship attire are not to be allowed to divide the church. Other beliefs cover marriage as a lifelong union between one man and one woman, the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, religious liberty, the separation of church and state, and the church's duty to preach the gospel to every nation.
A Discipleship Reading Plan
To help members read Scripture consistently, the church publishes a three-year Bible Reading Plan that walks through the Old Testament once and the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs twice over five days a week. Short introductory videos and printable "Book Basic Guides" are available for every book of the Bible, led by Faith pastors, elders, ministry interns, and other leaders. Each week's Sunday message also has a downloadable digital fill-in-the-blank study guide, and the sermon audio is released through a podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Giving and Membership Resources
Giving is offered online through a Subsplash-powered giving page, by text ("Give" to 919.737.7127), by auto-draft from a bank account, by bill pay, in cash or check at the lobby drop box or by mail, and through non-cash channels (crypto and stock gifts are processed through Engiven). The church operates under a single "one fund" model in which all gifts go toward the unified mission of the church, rather than being designated to particular projects. Recurring gifts, giving statements, and personal dashboards are managed through the church's Church Community Builder (CCB) portal and through the FaithNC app, available in the Apple App Store and Google Play.
A small paid childcare staff (5-25 hours per week, depending on role) supports the nursery and Faith Kids environments; the jobs page also lists openings for a Worship Director for Spanish Ministries. Office hours are Monday through Thursday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and the church office can be reached at 919.556.3420 or info@faithnc.org.