200 Years on East Main Street
First Baptist Church stands in the heart of historic downtown Lebanon, Tennessee, at 227 East Main Street, where the congregation marked its 200th anniversary with a celebration service in June 2021. The church's mission statement is short and direct: First Baptist Lebanon exists to glorify God and make disciples by connecting people to the peace and purpose of life in Christ. Worship is built on John 4:24, that those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth, and the gathered life of the church stretches from the cradle room in the Children's Building to a sanctuary filled with a multi-generational congregation every Sunday morning.
Sunday Mornings on East Main
The Sunday rhythm begins at 9:15 AM with classes and coffee for every age. Sunday School for children meets in the Children's Building, with check-in at the Children's Building Welcome Center. Preschool classes work through the Tell the Story curriculum, forty Bible stories that walk preschoolers through the full scope of Scripture, while elementary students in kindergarten through fifth grade use The Biggest Story, which traces the Bible from the garden of Eden to the return of Christ. Middle school and high school students meet on the third floor of the Sanctuary Building. Adults gather in classes scattered across the Gym Building and Main Building, organized by life stage.
At 10:30 AM the congregation moves into the sanctuary for the main worship service, which is also livestreamed on YouTube. The service blends a vocal and instrumental praise team, congregational singing, prayer, Scripture reading, and a sermon. The praise team rehearses on Sunday mornings at 7:30 AM and adds vocalists and instrumentalists by audition or invitation. First Baptist has been actively accepting resumes for a part-time Worship Leader with experience leading blended worship, signaling the direction of the music ministry.
A Building for Every Age
The Lebanon campus is laid out as a small village of connected buildings, and almost every ministry has a known room. The Sanctuary Building, the one with the steeple, holds the Welcome Center at the heart of the campus. From there a door greeter escorts visitors to the right classroom. The Children's Building has a nursery on the first floor for babies through four-year-olds during both Sunday School and the worship service, and grades rooms by age on the first and second floors. The Gym Building houses second-floor adult classes and a craft room for older adults, while the Main Building holds the older adult classes plus the Fellowship Hall, the hub for Wednesday night meals and activities.
Junior Worship: A Mini-Church
One of the distinctive ministries on campus is Junior Worship for kindergarten through fifth grade, modeled as a smaller version of the church's corporate worship. Children begin in the sanctuary for the first part of the service, then walk out together to the chapel directly behind the sanctuary for their own time of worship. In Junior Worship the children rotate through roles they will see in big church: greeters, ushers, and the praise team. They read Scripture, pray, and share testimonies. On the last Sunday of each month the children bring what they have learned back into the sanctuary.
Students in Grades 6 Through 12
First Baptist Lebanon Students, the ministry for sixth through twelfth grade, runs on a three-pillar rhythm. Sunday morning at 9:15 AM is GROW, a time for discipleship that starts the week on the right foot. Wednesday night at 5:30 PM is REACH, when students invite friends for food, fun, and teaching about who God is, running from September through May. Student Leadership is the third pillar, a team for students who want to help shape the ministry, serve in the church and community, and develop the GO outreach events. Deric Spurgeon, Minister of Children and Youth, oversees both Junior Worship and the student ministry.
BaseCamp on Wednesday Nights
Wednesday evenings belong to BaseCamp, an intergenerational program that brings every age to one table. The evening starts at 5:30 PM with a simple meal in the Fellowship Hall, then moves at 6:00 PM to Campsite Groups, where table leaders and members of all ages discuss the lesson, work through weekly activities, and hear a short message from the Camp Director. Nursery care is available throughout for birth through age four. Dismissal is at 7:15 PM. Adult Bible study gathers in the Fellowship Hall at 6:00 PM as part of the same evening.
Adult Classes and Re:generation
Sunday morning adult ministry is organized by life stage. Young Adults in their late teens and early twenties meet in the Gym Building, second floor. The Rooted Class serves adults in their twenties through forties, while The Orchard Class gathers a wider mix from twenties through sixties. Couples I is for those in their forties through sixties, Truth Seekers for the fifties and seventies, and a separate New Men's Class and a collection of women's classes including Mary/Martha, Esther, and Seekers gather in the Main Building. The Cafe Crew is a more informal option, also on the Main Building's first floor.
On Wednesday nights during the school year, Re:generation groups meet for adults eighteen and up. Re:generation is a biblically based discipleship program that offers healing, recovery, and freedom from any type of struggle, structured around a twelve-step model. Anyone is welcome, member or not. Newcomers begin with Groundwork, a six-week introduction, and then move into the main Re:generation curriculum that meets most Wednesday evenings from September through May. Benji Thomas, Minister of Education, oversees this ministry.
First Steps Preschool and Pre-K
First Baptist operates a weekday early education program on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The Parents Day Out program is open to young children and is run as a ministry of the church, with the goal of providing a warm, loving, Christian atmosphere where children can develop mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Pre-K extends the same schedule and adds a scriptural reference, Proverbs 22:6, as the foundation of the program. Registration forms for both programs are available online. Ashley Lester directs the Parents Day Out program and Erin Kemp leads Pre-K.
Loving Lebanon: Community Ministries
First Baptist takes its identity as a Lebanon church seriously, and several ministries flow out of that. Everyone's Wilson is a coalition of churches, marketplace leaders, and nonprofits working together for the good of every neighbor, and the church partners through its School Partnership to serve Jones Brummett Elementary, Lebanon's largest school with over 650 students and seventy-five faculty and staff. Through Compassionate Hands, the church's partner ministry, a spring shelter opens Mondays and Fridays from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, serving lunch and providing shower and laundry services. Bless Every Home is a prayer ministry that equips members to pray for their literal neighbors, one house at a time.
Faith at Home
For parents, Faith at Home is built on the conviction that parents are the primary faith influencers in a child's life. The ministry has assembled a set of short, themed family activities from Deep Discipleship that families can do together at home, covering topics like understanding emotions, spiritual battles, leadership, serving others, Christlike character, Christian fellowship, and God's goodness. The packets are free to download and are designed to help parents feel confident sharing their faith even while they are still growing in their own.
The 2026 Bible Reading Plan
The whole church is on one Bible reading plan each year, designed to align with the Explore the Bible series used in adult Sunday School. For 2026, the first half of the year is a slow walk through the Gospel of Matthew, broken into sections that match the Sermon on the Mount, the Mission of the Kingdom, Kingdoms in Conflict, and the Culmination of the Kingdom. June through August covers Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. September through November moves into Romans, with a 60-day reading plan plus two shorter Romans studies. The year ends in December with a 25-day Advent plan, God With Us.
Baptism and Membership
First Baptist teaches believer's baptism by immersion as the ordinance that pictures the believer's death to sin, burial of the old life, and resurrection to walk in newness of life. Anyone interested in being baptized can come forward at the conclusion of the Sunday morning service to speak with a pastor, mark the Welcome Card, or contact the church office. The church also practices a covenant view of membership, anchored in Acts 2:41-42, and a Next Steps Class is offered as a first step toward joining.
What to Expect on a First Visit
Visitors who walk up to the church on a Sunday morning are met at the door, helped with child check-in, and offered a cup of coffee, with the best seats in the house saved for guests. Dress is whatever a guest would wear to a family Sunday gathering. The campus includes accessible parking and the Welcome Center is easily reached from the parking lots. Worship services and a sermon archive going back several years are available on YouTube, and giving can be done online through the Realm Connect app, by texting Give2First to 73256, or in person. The church office is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and the staff welcomes questions, prayer requests, and conversations about the next step on the journey of faith.