Sundays on FM 1314: A Two-Part Rhythm
Porter First Baptist Church meets on one campus along FM 1314 on the north side of Porter, Texas, and Sunday is built around two coordinated hours. At 9:15 AM the building fills with Life Groups, the church's name for Sunday Bible study classes that run for every age at the same time, so a family can park once, walk in together, and split into the right room without juggling schedules. At 10:30 AM the whole congregation gathers for a single worship service alongside a parallel Children's Church for ages three through fifth grade, with nurseries open for babies and toddlers who need them. After lunch there is more: at 5:00 PM from September through May the building reopens for Student Choir, Adult and Children's Bible Studies, and a year-round College & Career Bible Study, so a young adult working weekdays still has a Sunday evening option.
Visitors can plan around those numbers. The 10:30 AM service lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes. There is no formal dress code beyond modesty and comfort; members and guests alike wear anything from coat and tie to flip-flops and a T-shirt. The whole service is also livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, so anyone who cannot attend in person can watch from home.
A Blended Service With a Full Band
The 10:30 AM service mixes old and new on purpose. The music is a blend of current contemporary praise and worship songs alongside the great hymns of the faith, led by a vocal praise team backed by the Worship Choir. A full band supports the singing, with keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, and horns and percussion when the song calls for it, so the sound is closer to a modern worship recording than a quiet chapel. Between songs, the pastor teaches through drama, video, personal story, and expository preaching, with the goal of making the Bible's claims clear and applicable for the week ahead.
The livestream itself is produced by a volunteer Tech Team that runs sound, lights, lyric computers, cameras, and the video production console. Anyone interested in joining that team, or the Drama team that writes and performs sketches for worship, can contact the church office.
FIRST KIDS: A Building of Their Own
Children's ministry at Porter First takes up an entire building, the FIRST KIDS Children's Building, with a separate welcome center on each floor. Every child from birth through fifth grade is checked in by printed name tag, and the matching tag given to the parent is required to pick the child up at the end of the service. Every paid employee and volunteer working with children goes through a criminal background check, Ministry Safe training, and an interview before serving.
The Littles nursery serves newborns through age two on the first floor, with separate rooms for bed babies, crawlers, and walkers. On Sunday mornings the nursery runs from 9:15 AM to 12:00 PM, and on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. Preschoolers who are two and potty trained through Kindergarten meet on the first floor for LIFE KIDS Bible study at 9:15 AM and a children's worship service called Kids Jam Jr. at 10:30 AM, with a Preschool Choir on Wednesday at 6:00 PM and Playscape Bible learning from 6:30 to 7:30 PM during the school year. First through fifth graders go up to the second floor for their own LIFE KIDS class at 9:15 AM, Kids Jam worship at 10:30 AM, Children's Choir at 6:00 PM on Wednesdays (September through May), and a Bible study called Gear Up at 6:30 PM on Wednesdays.
The teaching uses established curricula. Sunday LIFE KIDS at 9:15 uses The Gospel Project from LifeWay; Kids Jam Jr. uses Lil'K by KidMo; Kids Jam uses High Voltage Kids; and the Wednesday Gear Up program uses Children's Ministry Deals. The big annual events for kids are Vacation Bible School in the summer, Easter and Christmas events, and CentriKid Children's Camp for third through fifth graders, which can cost between fifty and two hundred dollars depending on how much is raised at the annual kids fundraiser. There is also a private, quiet nursing room for mothers on site.
Students in 6th Through 12th: Encounter on Wednesdays
The student ministry, branded as Encounter Student Ministry, gathers sixth through twelfth graders in their own Sunday morning Life Group at 9:15 AM and then again on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. The Wednesday gathering is built around in-depth discipleship and worship, designed to give teenagers a place to belong, build lasting friendships, and deepen their walk with God during a stage of life that often feels unstable. Soloists in the multi-generational Sunday services are drawn from the Student Choir, which meets at 5:00 PM on Sundays during the school year.
Adults by Life Stage
The Adult Ministry organizes the rest of the congregation by life stage rather than by a single large class. Life Groups are the primary fellowship unit. They are small groups organized by age or stage of life that meet on Sunday mornings at 9:15 AM, study the Word together, pray, and share the highs and lows of the week. A guest who has not yet chosen a Life Group is encouraged to try one and keep searching until the fit is right; childcare for babies through age two is provided during the Adult Life Group hour.
Porter First Women and Porter First Men run parallel ministries for adults, with Bible studies, retreats, and a quarterly Men's Breakfast. Singles are split into two Sunday morning classes, one for ages eighteen through the twenties and another for singles in their thirties and beyond, covering topics like career, single parenting, and dating. Senior Adults, defined as fifty-five and up, are served by an active Senior Adult Club that meets on occasional Wednesdays for a program and luncheon and regularly sponsors retreats and trips, while also teaching and leading across the rest of the church. Adult Bible Studies also run on Sunday evenings at 5:00 PM during the school year, and an Adult Bible Study and Prayer Meeting meets at 6:30 PM on Wednesdays during the Adult Choir Rehearsal hour.
Creative Arts: A Whole Department for Worship
Music and the arts are not an afterthought at Porter First. The Creative Arts ministry runs five ensembles plus a technical team, all under the direction of the Pastor of Worship. The Worship Choir, for adults, rehearses on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM in the Choir Room and sings most Sundays plus seasonal events. The Student Choir, grades six through twelve, rehearses on Sunday afternoons at 5:00 PM from September through May. Children's Choir for grades one through five and Preschool Choir for four- and five-year-olds through Kindergarten rehearse on Wednesdays at 6:00 PM during the school year and present a Christmas musical each year. A Praise Team of vocalists drawn from the Worship Choir sings on a rotation, and the Worship Band rehearses on Wednesdays at 7:30 PM and Sunday mornings at 8:30 AM. Instruments in use include piano, keyboard, bass, acoustic and electric guitar, and drums, and the church also welcomes wind and stringed instruments when players are available.
There is no audition to sing in a choir; the team will teach each singer their part. Joining the praise team or band requires an interview and audition with the Worship Pastor. For non-musical volunteers, the Tech Team runs the room on Sunday mornings, and seasonal productions need decorators, painters, carpenters, seamstresses, and artists.
Missions: Six Teams from the Block to the Globe
Missions at Porter First is organized into six teams: Local, Congregational, National, Cross Cultural, Prayer and Promotional, and Global. The local team alone covers a wide swath of activity. Throughout the year the church participates in or hosts church planting, block parties, Vacation Bible School, prayer walks, Men's and Women's ministry service projects, student community activities, Baptist Campus Ministries, Kids Hope, an AC Ministry, support for local programs, holiday celebrations, and special needs ministry. The aim, in the church's own words, is to encourage, educate, and inspire the congregation to reach the lost beyond the walls of the church with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What Porter First Believes
Porter First Baptist Church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention and cooperates with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Its doctrinal statement tracks the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. The Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God and the final authority for faith and life. There is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each fully God. Jesus Christ is God's Son, miraculously born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life, died to atone for human sin, was buried, bodily resurrected, ascended into heaven, and will personally return to establish His kingdom. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, regenerates, baptizes, indwells, seals, and empowers believers for holy living.
Human beings are created in God's image but fell through Adam and are born with a sinful nature, in need of salvation. The church is a local body of baptized believers with Christ as its head, called to worship, build up believers, and share the good news of forgiveness. Salvation is the gift of God, received by repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ; those who are saved are eternally secure. Baptism is an act of obedience after salvation, performed by immersion, and identifies the believer with the local church.
Staying Connected Between Sundays
The church runs its daily life through three digital tools. Realm is the church's app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, where members can sign up for events, contact a Life Group, manage giving, and read updates; registrations for events like Bible studies and seasonal programs happen through Realm. RightNow Media is a free, by-invitation streaming library of Christian video content the church makes available to anyone connected to it; to join, a guest can request an invite or text RIGHTNOWFBCPORTER to 41411. The Bible Recap program walks the whole congregation through the Bible in a year, with a full reading plan and a daily eight-minute podcast by Tara-Leigh Cobble that summarizes that day's reading.
Radical Generosity and Ways to Give
Giving is described by the church in theological terms: as radical generosity, flowing from an encounter with the generous God seen in the giving of His Son. Practically, gifts can be made by texting FBCPORTER to 73256, by dropping a gift in one of the offering receptacles outside the Worship Center doors on Sunday, by mailing a check to PO Box 650, Porter, TX 77365, or by setting up a one-time or recurring gift online through Realm.
The Pastoral Team
Rob Ray serves as Senior Pastor. His mission, in his own words, is to encounter God through meaningful worship, to grow in Christ through ministry and missions, to educate toward Christian maturity, and to serve while encouraging through Christian love. Troy Cates serves as Pastor of Worship and Senior Adults and leads the Creative Arts ministry, including the choirs, band, and tech team. Ben Ellis is Pastor to Students and oversees Encounter Student Ministry. Taylor Carper is Pastor to Children and oversees the FIRST KIDS ministry; he holds a Master's in Christian Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has served in preschool and children's ministry for more than twenty years.
Becoming a Member and Joining the Life
Membership at Porter First is open to professing Christians dedicated to biblical truths. New members come in by transfer of membership from another church, by profession of faith and baptism, or by statement of faith, in each case after attending a one-session First Connections class and meeting briefly with a staff member. There are hundreds of service opportunities within the church and out in the community, and the church teaches that every person has gifts and talents to be used to serve others.