Two Worship Styles on a Sunday Morning in Gulf Shores
First Baptist Church Gulf Shores sits on West 1st Street, just inland from the sugar-white beaches of Baldwin County. The congregation lives by a simple motto: Love God. Share Faith. Disciple Others. Around that three-part rhythm the whole week is built.
Three Sunday services give visitors a choice of style without leaving the campus. Bridge Worship, a blended service led by choir and offering a mix of hymns and newer songs, meets at 8:15 AM and again at 10:45 AM in the Worship Center. Between them, IMPACT Worship, the church's contemporary service, fills the Christian Growth Center at 9:30 AM. IMPACT is also livestreamed on Vimeo so that snowbirds, college students, and anyone traveling can worship along from wherever they are. The church invites newcomers to come as they are.
Bible Fellowship: A Class for Every Season
Bible Fellowship is what First Baptist Gulf Shores calls its Sunday morning small-group ministry, and the church takes the name seriously. More than two dozen classes meet at 9:30 and 10:45 on the first and second floors of the main building, organized for nearly every life stage and interest.
The goal is simple: find your place, make friends, and grow spiritually in Sunday Bible Fellowship.
Wednesday Night Around the Table
Midweek is its own kind of homecoming at First Baptist Gulf Shores. Dinner is served at 5 PM in the Christian Growth Center, and the cost is set at $8 per adult, $25 for a family of four, and $6 for each additional family member. To reserve a spot, families register by Sunday at 6 PM.
Once the tables are cleared, three things happen at once. DiscipleshipLIFE, the church's adult Bible study, runs from 6 to 7 PM in the Christian Growth Center. Across the way, Fusion Students gathers in the Student Room for the same hour of student-focused teaching and worship. Children have their own M&M programming in the Children's Auditorium starting at 5:30 PM, so the whole family is in place before dinner is over. Choir and IMPACT rehearsal, both open to volunteers, begin at 5:50 PM in the Worship Center, and the Media Ministry holds its training at 6 PM in the same room for anyone who wants to serve behind the scenes with lights, sound, and the livestream.
Children: From Cribs to Fifth Grade
The Children's Ministry, housed in the Christian Growth Center, opens at 8 AM for babies and preschoolers. On Sundays at 9:30 AM, kids in kindergarten and below join Bible Fellowship, and at both 8:15 and 10:45 AM, worship care is offered for ages birth through four. A special WeePraise time for 4K and 5K runs at 10:45.
Gulf Kids, the ministry for first through fifth graders, gathers on the second floor of the CGC. Sunday programming runs at 9:30 AM (Bible Fellowship and Children's Worship) and again at 10:45 AM (Bible Fellowship). Three simple truths anchor everything the team teaches: God made me, God loves me, and Jesus wants to be my friend forever.
First-time families check in at the Welcome Kiosk on the first floor of the CGC before any service. The check-in collects parent names, child names and birthdays, contact information, and any allergy or special-needs notes, and parents receive a text if they are needed during a service. Fourth and fifth graders may be dismissed on their own. Lead teachers include Scott and Diane Clark (first and second grade), Tara Morrison and Michael Dearborn (third grade), Bobby Blankenship and Meg Hodge (fourth grade), and Patrick Fowler and Cathy Hardin (fifth grade).
Students and Young Adults
Student ministry: Fusion Night on Wednesdays at 6 PM in the Student Center, and Fusion Groups on Sundays at 10:45 AM, give students in Gulf Shores a place to grow in faith, build friendships, and live boldly for Christ.
Young Adults, an 18 to 29 community, meets on Sundays at 10:45 AM for Bible Fellowship, following the 9:30 IMPACT service. The current study is Expository Apologetics by Voddie Baucham, working through a scriptural and conversational approach to defending the hope of the Christian faith.
The Manna Center: Serving the Coast Since 2013
The Manna Center is one of the church's most visible ministries to the wider Gulf Shores community. It began in January 2013 with a two-person team handing out groceries and has grown into a weekly outreach supported by volunteers, First Baptist Gulf Shores, and local businesses, serving neighbors in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and Fort Morgan.
The center is open on Tuesdays from 9:30 to 11:30 AM and again from 2 to 4 PM. Walk-ins of food, children's clothing donations, counseling, and computer assistance with job applications and government services are all offered under one roof. Donations of children's clothing are currently being accepted. The Manna Center can be reached at 251-948-2485 or manna@fbcgulf.com.
Grief Share and Other Care Ministries
Grief Share meets on Thursdays at 1 PM in the Student Room, offering a safe, caring group for those walking through the loss of a loved one, with biblical support and practical counsel.
The Women's Ministry hosts a Bible study each Thursday morning at 9 AM in Founders' Hall and an evening option at 6 PM in the Christian Growth Center. Past studies have included Jen Wilkin's Sermon on the Mount, and the ministry keeps an ongoing rhythm of connection, encouragement, learning, and service. The Men's Ministry gathers around prayer, Bible study, and authentic brotherhood, encouraging men to lead with strength, humility, and faith at home, in church, and in the world.
Recreation, Sports, and Prayer Walks
The Recreation Ministry treats sports and shared activity as a front door to faith. Pickleball tournaments, open gym nights, and a church softball team keep the calendar full. Camps offer athletes a Christ-centered space to grow in skill, teamwork, and character on and off the court. Regular prayer walks across local school campuses invite members to pray for students, teachers, and families, a simple but powerful way to serve the broader community.
A Long Statement of Faith
First Baptist Gulf Shores stands on an eighteen-article Statement of Faith rooted in the historic Baptist confessions. The Bible is held to be the inerrant, verbally inspired Word of God, the supreme standard for Christian belief and conduct. The church confesses one God eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaches that salvation is by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ, including regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. Believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper are the two ordinances. Marriage is defined as the lifelong covenant union of one man and one woman, and children from conception are affirmed as a heritage from the Lord. The church affirms the priesthood of every believer, the autonomy of the local congregation, the priesthood limited to qualified men, religious liberty, and the separation of church and state.
Pastor Lawrence Phipps and the LIFE Process
Dr. Lawrence Phipps has served as Senior Pastor since October 2017, when the church called him after his time as Interim Pastor beginning in 2016. He and his wife Karen previously founded It's Life Ministry in 2013, leaving the church they had planted in Montgomery, Alabama in 1993 after almost twenty years of ministry marked by more than 2,000 baptisms. Phipps leads with an emphasis on prayer and on discipling believers to share their faith, drawing on books he has written for the LIFE Process.
Plan a Visit and Next Steps
Visitors planning a first Sunday can expect three worship services to choose from, a warm welcome, and a staffed Welcome Kiosk for families with children. Bible Fellowship classes meet on both hours for those who want to study the Bible in a smaller setting. A Discovery Class is offered for anyone considering making First Baptist Gulf Shores their church home, covering the church's vision and beliefs in a single 50-minute gathering led by one of the ministers.