A Gospel-Centered Church in Nixa, Missouri
First Baptist Nixa gathers on Wasson Drive just off Massey Boulevard (Highway 160), tucked behind a Braum's and an Applebee's on the south side of Nixa, Missouri. From this location a gospel-centered congregation meets each week around expository preaching, the ordinances of believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper, and a Reformed reading of the Bible that traces back to the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century and the Baptist movement of the seventeenth. Lead pastor Timothy Haupt describes the church as a community that finds "our identity and our mission in the gospel of Jesus Christ," and the motto that greets visitors captures the church's central confession: "Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."
Three Foundational Pillars
The church's life is shaped by three foundational pillars. The first is a deep love for the Word of God. The second is a firm commitment to the doctrines of the Reformation. The third is a desire to be a strong, healthy New Testament church. First Baptist Nixa preaches verse by verse through books of the Bible, structures its worship around the text of each week's sermon, and follows the marks of a healthy church laid out by Mark Dever in Nine Marks of a Healthy Church: expository preaching, gospel doctrine, true conversion and biblical evangelism, covenant membership, church discipline, concern for discipleship and growth, elder-led congregationalism, corporate prayer, and church-centered missions.
Reformed convictions also mark the church. First Baptist Nixa joyfully affirms the doctrines of grace (total depravity, unconditional election, particular redemption, effectual calling, and perseverance of the saints) and echoes the five solas of the Reformation (grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, Scripture alone, and glory to God alone). The congregation also holds to a Baptist ecclesiology, believing that a true church is a gathered community of baptized believers in covenant with God and with one another.
What Sunday Looks Like
Sunday is the heart of the church's life. The day begins at 9:00 a.m. with CONNECT, the church's small-group ministry for adults, students, and children. At 10:15 a.m. the congregation gathers in the auditorium for corporate worship. A worship band and vocal team lead a song service shaped around the text of the morning's sermon, with words on the screen so that everyone can follow along. A pastoral welcome, congregational singing, prayer, the reading of Scripture, and a sermon make up the gathering, which generally ends by 11:45 a.m.
The church has no dress code, and visitors are encouraged to "dress comfortably," whether that means jeans and a t-shirt or a suit and tie. Most people dress casually. Greeters welcome each person at the door with a smile and a weekly bulletin. A Connect Desk in the entryway offers a special gift for first-time visitors and a guest card for anyone who would like the church to follow up. Visitors are not singled out during the service, but the church does ask anyone willing to fill out a guest card and drop it by the Connect Desk or one of the offering boxes after the service. Childcare is available for ages 0 to 5 during all Sunday and Wednesday service times, and families are encouraged to arrive a few minutes early for check-in.
The CONNECT Hour at 9:00 a.m.
CONNECT is the church's small-group ministry for adults, students, and children, and it meets every Sunday at 9:00 a.m. The adult and youth groups work through the previous Sunday's sermon in a discussion format aimed at personal application and transformation. Children's groups meet by age from infants through sixth grade. Four functions shape every CONNECT group: discipleship, relationships, outreach, and prayer. The aim is to make lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ, and the church believes that involvement in a CONNECT group is an integral part of that process.
The adult CONNECT groups are organized by age and stage of life, with on-campus classes for preschoolers and children, a 7th through 12th grade student group, a college and twenties group, co-ed classes for adults in their twenties through fifties, ladies' and men's groups, and median and senior adult classes downstairs. An off-campus group meets on Thursday nights at 6:30 p.m. in a designated room at the church.
Children: 1stKids
First Baptist Nixa pours significant energy into its children's ministry, called 1stKids. The church teaches that lifelong faith "happens best through creative, fun, Christ-centered interactions with the living and abiding Word of God." Five weekly or seasonal programs shape that vision.
Kids CONNECT classes meet every Sunday at 9:00 a.m., with preschoolers in the downstairs Pre-K hallway and K through 6th graders in the upstairs 1stKids Wing. The Amazing Bible Race for grades 1 through 4 and Basecamp for grades 5 and 6 meet on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. during the school year. 1stKids Live! is a drama-based ministry on the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of the month at 6:00 p.m., following a main character through a story of life, faith, and lessons from Scripture and the catechism; the program does not meet in the summer. A Vacation Bible School runs each summer as well, and childcare for ages 0 to 5 is available during all worship services and discipleship classes.
Students: 7th through 12th Grade
The Student Ministry exists "to reach students with the gospel of Jesus Christ, connect them to the local church, and equip them through God's Word to become mature disciples who glorify God and advance His Kingdom." Students meet in CONNECT on Sunday mornings at 9:00 a.m. and at Midweek on Wednesday nights at 6:00 p.m. The ministry uses the Remind app to keep families updated on events and publishes a calendar of summer activities alongside the year-round rhythm of gatherings.
The Gathering on Sunday Evenings
On the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of every month at 6:00 p.m., the church hosts The Gathering, a more informal evening of fellowship that the church describes as "the bi-weekly Sunday evening fellowship of praise and prayer." Four elements make up the evening: acoustic worship with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; brief teaching on topics not ordinarily addressed in the morning's expository preaching; testimonies from the congregation about answered prayer and ministry needs; and guided congregational prayer. The Gathering gives the church a regular setting for shared ministry that the Sunday morning service cannot contain.
Wednesdays and Midweek
Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. are another rhythm of the church. AWANA meets on Sunday evenings at 6:00 p.m. during the school year and is a major children's program. Adult Discipleship classes run on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. and a separate Adult Bible Study meets on Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. The student ministry gathers at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays for Midweek. The children's Wednesday programs, The Amazing Bible Race and Basecamp, run from September through May. Nursery is provided for all Sunday and Wednesday services through age 5.
Discipleship Studies: A Fall and Spring Rhythm
Twice a year, in fall and spring, the church offers ten to twelve week discipleship classes on Wednesday nights at 6:00 p.m. Studies have included a walk through John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress led by Pastor Tim Haupt, a study on whether God wants his people to be happy with Pastor Gordon Dawley, a survey of the identity of Jesus titled "The Jesus You May Not Know" with Pastor Jay Swope, and a women's study of Galatians with Debbie Cooper. The goal of each class is life transformation through careful attention to God's Word.
Adults, Women, Men, and Senior Adults
The Adults ministry at First Baptist Nixa is designed to reach "newlywed, young, median, or senior adult" through Bible study, discipleship, friendships, fellowship, and service. Beyond CONNECT groups, the church hosts marriage retreats, men's ministry events, women's ministry events, senior adult activities, and mission and outreach projects. The women's ministry nurtures the discipleship and fellowship of the women of the church to encourage a deeper relationship with God and the church family. Senior adults in their seventies and up gather in a downstairs classroom on Sunday mornings, and median adults in their sixties and seventies have their own co-ed group.
Music Ministry
The Music Ministry values "coming together each week to worship God through song." Rather than choosing between traditional and contemporary, the church structures its music around the sermon text, picking songs and styles that fit the passage's message and mood. A worship band leads alongside vocalists every Sunday morning, and there are ongoing opportunities to serve on the praise band, the vocal team, and the audio/visual team. The church describes its worship as "biblical, heartfelt, and joyful."
Missions: A Local Church with a Global Reach
Missions is woven into the DNA of First Baptist Nixa. The church partners with the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board to fund work around the world and church planting across North America. It sends short-term mission teams to various locations, partners with long-term missionaries in Southeast Asia, the Czech Republic, and Northern Ireland, and pursues additional opportunities to extend its global gospel reach. The missions ministry grounds itself in Psalm 67's prayer that God's saving power would be known among all nations, and in Acts 1:8's call to be witnesses "to the end of the earth."
What the Church Believes
First Baptist Nixa holds a full doctrinal statement centered on the Bible as the inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word of God; the Trinity; the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ; his virgin birth, sinless life, atoning death, bodily resurrection, and ascension; salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone; the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, sanctification, and preservation; the visible return of Christ; the resurrection of the just and the unjust; and the church as the body of Christ made up of baptized believers.
The church also holds a complementary view of men and women, affirming that men and women are equally made in the image of God with equal access to God by faith in Christ, and that within the church the distinctive leadership role given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption. The ordinances are believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper. Only believers are baptized, and only baptized believers are admitted to the Lord's Supper.
First Baptist Nixa affirms The Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) as its confession of faith, holds substantial agreement with The Baptist Faith and Message (2000) of the Southern Baptist Convention as the basis of its cooperation with Southern Baptists, and aligns with the Gospel Coalition Confessional Statement, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and the Nashville Statement on Biblical Sexuality.
Becoming a Member
First Baptist Nixa practices covenant membership. The path begins with the Connect to Membership Class, which covers what it means to be a church member, what the church believes, and how the church is governed. Prospective members then meet with two elders for a membership interview, usually at the church or in the prospective member's home. After the elders recommend a candidate, the new members are presented to the congregation at the close of a Sunday morning service, affirmed by the body, and received into membership.
Those who join commit to working and praying for the unity of the Spirit, walking together in brotherly love, not forsaking the assembling of the church, endeavoring to bring up those under their care in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and contributing cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the advance of the gospel. The membership covenant is adapted from Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and is modeled on the historic Baptist covenants, particularly the 1833 Covenant of the New Hampshire Baptist Convention.
Pastors and Staff
Timothy Haupt has served as lead pastor since January 2014. Originally from Neosho, Missouri, he graduated from Southwest Baptist University in 2005 with a degree in mathematics, earned his Master of Divinity from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in 2008, and received a Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2022, writing his dissertation on the ecclesiology of John Bunyan. He and his wife Ashley have four children.
Gordon Dawley has been on staff for over twenty-eight years. He and his wife Beth are empty nesters with three grown sons. He holds a Master's in Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Bachelor's in Accounting and Business Administration from Drury University. Kurt Osterloh serves as the Student Pastor. Originally from Mount Vernon, Missouri, he graduated from Southwest Baptist University in 2010 with a degree in Biblical Studies and from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2018 with a Master's in Theological Studies. Before coming to First Baptist Nixa he served as the Student Pastor at Macedonia Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri. He and his wife Amanda have two daughters.
Resources and Giving
The church maintains a YouTube channel and a podcast on iTunes where sermons are available, and sermon manuscripts, outlines, and CONNECT cards for recent Sundays are archived for download. A Facebook page and a Twitter account keep the congregation connected during the week, and online giving is available through EasyTithe and the church's Lifeway giving portal.
Office and Location
The church office is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Friday from 8:00 a.m. to noon. The address is 601 W. Wasson Drive, Nixa, Missouri 65714, and the phone number is 417-725-3867. In case of inclement weather, cancellations are announced on the church's Facebook page and by email.