Sunday Morning at Pleasant Valley Drive
First Baptist Little Rock sits at 62 Pleasant Valley Drive on the west side of the capital city, just off Rodney Parham Road. The church's stated purpose is simple and unhurried: We exist to LOVE people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Behind that sentence is a full weekly rhythm that runs from Sunday morning through Wednesday evening and out into the neighborhoods of central Arkansas.
The Sunday schedule is built around two anchors. LifeGroups meet at 9:00 a.m. in graded classrooms across the campus, and the gathered worship service begins at 10:15 a.m. The church reserves parking spots for first-time guests, marked just off Rodney Parham Road. Families dropping off children can pull up at the east entrance under the blue awning, where the Children's Welcome Desk can point them in the right direction. Anyone else can simply use a visitor spot and step in through the doors facing Rodney Parham Road.
The main worship service takes place in the Worship Center, and it is livestreamed each Sunday morning at 10:15 a.m. for those joining from home, with an archive of past series available afterward.
MDWK: Wednesday Nights Around the Table
Midweek at FBLR is called MDWK, and it opens the way families appreciate. A family-style meal begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Bistro for $5 a person, so parents coming in from work do not have to scramble for dinner. From 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., the church then splits by age.
- MDWK Kids (kindergarten through fifth grade) gather in the Gym for games, worship, Bible teaching, and small groups.
- Students (sixth through twelfth grade) head to the Student Ministry Room on the second floor for teaching, worship, and small groups that take on real-life questions.
- Childcare for 6 weeks through K4 is provided in the Preschool Area, with age-appropriate play and simple Bible stories.
- Adults meet in the Fellowship Hall at 6:00 p.m. for an hour-long, pastor-led Bible study.
Children, Preschool, and Students
Children's ministry at FBLR is built on the conviction that disciples are made at home. Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. find kindergartners and first graders in Room 112, second and third graders in Room 114, and fourth and fifth graders in the Choir Room. During the 10:15 service, Kids Church (K-5th) shifts to the Gathering Place (K-2nd) and the Choir Room (3-5th) for a high-energy hour of live worship and hands-on learning.
The Preschool department serves children from six weeks through five years with caring teachers and a Christ-centered curriculum. Wednesday-night care begins at 5:30 p.m. for families who serve or participate in another FBLR ministry. For children who need extra support, the church offers a sensory room and the option of a 1:1 aide.
The Student Ministry exists to disciple central Arkansas students to live by God's grace and for God's glory. Clayton Fitzpatrick, the Student Pastor, oversees a teaching team that includes adult volunteers from the congregation. Students meet on Sunday mornings, gather for MDWK on Wednesday nights, and connect during the week through their Sunday LifeGroup in the Student Ministries Room, located directly above the game room on the second floor.
Adults at Every Stage of Life
Adults at FBLR find several Bible-study and fellowship tracks in addition to Sunday morning LifeGroups. Men meet on Tuesday mornings at 6:00 a.m. in the Bistro area of the Wellness Center for a casual study that runs a little over an hour, long enough to dig into the text and short enough for those heading to work. Women gather on Tuesday mornings from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. for a fall Bible study, with registration through the church office. Senior adults - the Legacy group - enjoy a monthly Tuesday Night Together potluck and game night on the first Tuesday of every month at 5 p.m., a quarterly Senior Adult Focus gathering with the Pulaski Baptist Association, and a telephone class for adults who prefer to study from home.
LifeGroups: The Small-Group Backbone
The Sunday 9:00 a.m. hour is the entry point for nearly everyone at FBLR. Adult LifeGroups meet across the campus, with coed classes in Room 220, the Chapel near the Worship Center, Room 145 behind the choir room, and many other rooms, alongside dedicated classes for adult singles, women, and senior adults. Most adult groups work systematically through scripture book by book, supported by a five-teacher rotation in some rooms and a strong emphasis on prayer, fellowship, and care for one another. Kindergarten through twelfth-grade LifeGroups give every age a parallel track on Sunday morning, with a check-in desk just inside Door 4.
The Tree: A Central Arkansas Christmas Tradition
Each December, FBLR builds Central Arkansas's only Living Christmas Tree. Standing forty feet tall and wrapped in forty thousand channels of light, the Tree anchors a full-scale Christmas production with more than one hundred voices on the structure, a live orchestra, environmental projection, and drama. Jerry Wilson leads the production each year and oversees the regular weekly worship services as well. Photos with Santa are offered every performance day except Sunday.
Beyond the Walls: Missions, Fostering Hope, and Connect Church
Missions are woven into the identity of the church. Mission trips run in three directions: internationally to the Dominican Republic, Italy, Russia, and Peru; nationally to New York City, Seattle, and South Dakota; and locally through partnerships with Arkansas Children's Hospital, the Union Rescue Mission, and Watershed. FBLR also supports Connect Church at 2100 S. Tyler Street as a church plant reaching its own neighborhood, with Charles Simmons serving as the resident church planter.
Fostering Hope is FBLR's orphan ministry, with the goal of a caring, Christian home for every foster child in the community. The ministry prepares a meal on the last Tuesday of each month for youth in crisis and welcomes monthly volunteers. Online giving supports the church's mission and ministries.
Recreation and Wellness Center
Also on the campus is a Recreation and Wellness Center, open Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It houses a college-size basketball court that splits into two cross courts, two volleyball courts, a racquetball court, men's and women's locker rooms with saunas and showers, a fully equipped weight room with Cybex machines and televisions, a cardio studio with treadmills, ellipticals, and cycles, a rubberized walking and jogging track, a children's indoor playground, and a game room with pool tables, ping-pong, foosball, and Wii stations. Pickleball is a recurring weekly feature, with play on Mondays from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. and Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Baptist Preparatory School
Sharing the Pleasant Valley campus is The Baptist Preparatory School, a ministry of First Baptist Little Rock, with offices on the second floor of the building and its own activity feed for school events. The school office is open 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays.
What FBLR Believes
The teaching of the church is rooted in a confessional Baptist understanding of the faith. FBLR holds that the Scriptures are true, authoritative, and sufficient; that there is one true God, Creator of heaven and earth, who eternally exists in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that all people, Christ excluded, are sinful by birth and action; that the deserved penalty for sin is physical and spiritual death; that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, born of a virgin, fully God and fully human, who died as the sacrificial substitute, physically rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will one day physically return. Salvation comes only through faith in Christ's person and work, and repentance from sin, and the salvation God gives is held by his grace and power alone.
Membership at FBLR is built on a personal profession of faith in Christ followed by believer's baptism. The church practices baptism by immersion as a one-time act of obedient identification with Jesus and observes the Lord's Supper alongside baptism as one of the two ordinances given to the church.
Leadership
The church is being shepherded through an interim season by Dr. Mark Tolbert, a professor of preaching and pastoral ministry at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a veteran of sixteen interim pastorates across Texas, Arkansas, and Alabama. He and his wife Joy live in Benton.
Jerry Wilson serves as both Executive Pastor and Worship Pastor. A graduate of Ouachita Baptist University, he joined the FBLR team after serving churches in Virginia Beach, Orlando, Batesville, and Tyler, Texas, and oversees both the weekly worship services and the church's business practices.
Clayton Fitzpatrick became the full-time Student Pastor after serving as a summer intern and finishing his senior year of college at Ouachita Baptist, where he earned a double major in Christian Studies and Spanish. He is now working on a Master of Theology through Dallas Theological Seminary.
John Griffith leads FBLR's media ministry, having joined the church's sound and lights team before becoming the full-time Media Director. Charles Simmons serves as the resident church planter for Connect Church at 2100 S. Tyler Street. Janet Osborne, the Ministry Assistant, has been a member of FBLR since 1985 and on staff since 2010.