Heartland Baptist Church stands on Telegraph Road in Oakville, Missouri, five miles south of Interstate 255 and five miles east of Interstate 55, in the greater St. Louis area. The church is known for three things that shape nearly everything it does: a written statement of Christian doctrine meant to be examined, a covenant that treats church membership as a relationship with accountability rather than a listing, and a disciple-making rhythm built around Bible study and prayer. Its mission statement is two words long: "Honor God and Help People." Sunday School begins at 9:00 a.m., worship follows at 10:15 a.m., Discipleship Training meets at 6:00 p.m., and the congregation gathers for prayer on Wednesday afternoons at 1:00 p.m.
Sunday at Heartland: Study, Worship, and Deeper Discipleship
Sunday morning at Heartland starts in classrooms rather than with a service. At 9:00 a.m. Sunday School opens as small group Bible study, and the church has classes for babies, children, youth, and adults. The adult curriculum, The Gospel Project for Adults, follows the story of Jesus through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation and points to the one story that runs through Scripture from cover to cover, God's redemptive plan to rescue people from sin and death. Because the whole Bible points to Jesus, the study treats the theology and mission within the text as essential for understanding the depth and power of the gospel. Adult classes carry names such as Bancroft, 40+, Masloski, Men (Evans), Women (Funk), and Women (Willing Workers), so a newcomer can find a group by name rather than guess.
At 10:15 a.m. the whole church family comes together for worship. The description of that hour is plain: singing, prayer, giving, and the examination of the Bible by the pastor. That last phrase fits the church's character, since Heartland says it believes in doctrinal clarity and presents its beliefs in order, from general to specific, so that anyone can see exactly where it stands.
The third Sunday gathering, Discipleship Training at 6:00 p.m., is also for the whole church family. Where Sunday School introduces the text, Discipleship Training is for more in-depth study of the Bible, with an emphasis on systematic and practical theology. The week is completed on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., when the church holds a prayer meeting to encourage one another through the reading of God's Word and intercessory prayer. An afternoon prayer meeting is an unusual hour, and it is one more sign that the church organizes its schedule around the Word.
Children have a rhythm of their own. Sunday School uses The Gospel Story for Kids curriculum, and on the first and third Sundays of each month the children take part in a special Children's Church program dedicated to their spiritual growth and discipleship.
Honor God and Help People: Mission and Relationships
Heartland's mission statement is "Honor God and Help People." The church describes itself as a democratic body under the lordship of Jesus Christ, and it cooperates with other Southern Baptist churches in its city, state, and nation to make disciples. It also maintains affiliations with several organizations outside its denomination, including Missouri Baptist, St. Louis Baptist, and The Gospel Coalition. Money follows the same cooperative spirit: the church regularly contributes to the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention, which pairs churches with church planters and missionaries at home and across the globe, and members are encouraged to consider a special offering at Christmas through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and at Easter through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering, supporting the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board.
Vision is set out under four headings the church repeats throughout its materials: Where We Are Going, Let's Go, Spiritual Maturity, and Resources. Spiritual maturity is the thread that connects them. It appears in the title of a message on spiritual maturity from Philippians, where the race is described as being in front of the believer; in the covenant commitment to strive for the church's advancement "in knowledge, holiness, and comfort"; and in the teaching that growth in grace should continue throughout a believer's life.
Scripture Alone and the Five Solas
Heartland opens its statement of beliefs with the Cambridge Declaration, which it presents as its doctrinal standing from general to specific. Scripture Alone is affirmed as the sole source of written divine revelation and the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured; no creed, council, or individual can bind a Christian's conscience, the Holy Spirit does not speak independently of or contrary to the Bible, and personal spiritual experience is never a vehicle of revelation.
Christ Alone is the ground of salvation. The declaration affirms that salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone, that his sinless life and substitutionary atonement are sufficient for justification and reconciliation to the Father, and that the gospel is not preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not sought.
Grace Alone means that in salvation people are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone, through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, who brings them to Christ, releases them from bondage to sin, and raises them from spiritual death to spiritual life. Salvation is in no sense a human work. Faith Alone is the instrument of justification, because justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone, and Christ's righteousness is imputed to the believer as the only possible satisfaction of God's justice. To God Alone belongs the glory, since salvation is of God and accomplished by God, which is why the church says it cannot properly glorify God if worship is confused with entertainment, if preaching neglects either Law or Gospel, or if self-improvement and self-fulfillment are allowed to replace the gospel.
The Baptist Faith and Message
Below the Cambridge Declaration, the church sets out the Baptist Faith and Message in eighteen affirmations that run from the authority of Scripture to the family and religious liberty. Scripture is described as a perfect treasure of divine instruction, wholly true and trustworthy, and the true center of Christian union. God is affirmed as one and only one living and true God, eternal and triune, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with distinct personal attributes but without division of nature or being. The Son is affirmed as the eternal Son of God who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, lived without sin, honored the divine law by his personal obedience, died in substitution for men, was raised from the dead, ascended, and now sits at the right hand of God as the one mediator, fully God and fully man. The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, convicts of sin, effects regeneration, and empowers the church for worship, evangelism, and service.
People are described as a special creation of God made in his own image, male and female, and as possessing full dignity and worthy of respect and Christian love. Salvation is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and it moves through four stages: regeneration, the new birth, a work of grace in which the Holy Spirit changes the heart; justification, God's gracious and full acquittal of sinners who repent and believe; sanctification, the experience of being set apart to God's purposes and enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity; and glorification, the final blessed state of the redeemed. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
The church is described as "an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel," observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by his laws, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the lordship of Christ through democratic processes, and every member is accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons, and while both men and women are gifted for service, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, an act of obedience that symbolizes faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior and is prerequisite to church membership and to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience in which members, through the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate his second coming. The first day of the week is the Lord's Day, a Christian institution for regular observance that commemorates the resurrection of Christ and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private.
The remaining affirmations cover the kingdom of God and last things, the duty of every follower of Christ to make disciples of all nations, Christian education, stewardship, cooperation, the Christian and the social order, peace and war, religious liberty, and the family. Stewardship is practical: Christians should contribute cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally, and members are asked to give proportionately and sacrificially of their finances, understanding 10 percent as a starting point. In the social order, the church commits to opposing racism, greed, selfishness, and sexual immorality, and to working to provide for the orphaned, needy, abused, aged, helpless, and sick, and to speaking on behalf of the unborn. Marriage is defined as the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime, and children from the moment of conception are described as a blessing and a heritage from the Lord. Alongside these affirmations the church holds to the Abstract of Principles of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859, a historic Baptist statement in which the Scriptures are called the only sufficient, certain, and authoritative rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience, and in which baptism is called obligatory upon every believer as a sign of fellowship with the death and resurrection of Christ.
Family, Gender, and Peace
Two documents shape Heartland's understanding of everyday life. The Danvers Statement, prepared by several evangelical leaders in 1987 and published by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in 1988, begins from the observation that widespread uncertainty about the differences between masculinity and femininity has damaged the fabric of marriage. It affirms that Adam and Eve were created in God's image, equal before God as persons and distinct in manhood and womanhood; that distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are part of the created order; that male headship in marriage was established by God before the Fall; and that redemption aims at removing the distortions the Fall introduced. In the home, husbands are to forsake harsh or selfish leadership and grow in love and care, while wives are to forsake resistance and grow in willing, joyful submission. In the church, men and women have an equal share in the blessings of salvation, though some governing and teaching roles remain restricted to men.
The Peacemaker's Pledge turns that conviction into a method for handling conflict. Adapted from Ken Sande's The Peacemaker, a biblical guide to resolving personal conflict, it commits believers to four practices: glorify God rather than focusing on their own desires; get the log out of their own eye by confessing sin and seeking repair; gently restore a brother or sister instead of talking about them behind their backs; and go and be reconciled by actively pursuing genuine peace rather than accepting premature compromise. The pledge treats conflict as an assignment rather than an accident and measures success by faithful, dependent obedience rather than by specific results.
A Covenant People: Membership and Heartland 101
Membership at Heartland is not a mailing-list addition. The church calls itself a democratic body under the lordship of Jesus Christ that reserves the right to determine the conditions for membership, and in general opens membership to people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, have been baptized by immersion upon profession of their faith, and subscribe to the beliefs and practices of the church. Four reasons explain why it matters: membership makes a relationship to Christ and his people visible, it allows a covenant commitment in a culture allergic to the idea, it provides accountability, and it provides leadership.
Members in good standing are expected to be faithful in all duties essential to the Christian life, to attend the services of the church regularly, to contribute financially to the support of the ministries and causes of the church, to share their spiritual gifts and God-given talents in the work of the church, and to strive to conform to the church covenant. In practical terms, a member is asked to honor God in Christian living and spiritual discipline, attend faithfully, give proportionately and sacrificially of finances with 10 percent as a starting point, give time and abilities in serving Christ at the local church, and strive to conform to the covenant.
The covenant itself is written in the first person, as a promise made by the congregation together. Members engage to walk together in Christian love, to strive for the advancement of the church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort, to promote its prosperity and spirituality, to sustain its worship, ordinances, doctrines, and discipline, and to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations. They also engage to maintain family and private devotions, to teach the Scriptures to their children, to seek the salvation of family and friends, to engage their culture with wisdom, and to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit whether at church, at home, or at work. Members covenant to care for one another in brotherly love, to remember one another in prayer, to aid one another in sickness and distress, to show hospitality, and to live in harmony rather than self-centeredness.
The first step is Heartland 101, a two-week class that meets during the Sunday School hour. Over those two weeks the class covers the mission and vision of the church, what the church believes, what membership involves, and what the various ministries offer, and it doubles as a way to get to know one of the pastors in a much more personal way. The class is a requirement for church membership, and the church asks people to register in advance so it can plan.
Discipleship for Every Generation
Adult ministry at Heartland works through classes and one-on-one discipleship. The adult Sunday School classes study The Gospel Project for Adults, which carries the whole Bible's redemptive story from Genesis to Revelation, and the church supplements classroom teaching with small groups. Men's ministry includes periodic group book studies that challenge participants theologically and practically, and Man to Man Discipleship, a weekly one-on-one meeting with the pastor in which the two of them discuss a chapter from a book and work to apply it. The church is candid that this requires reading and preparation, and says the ministry is meant for men who earnestly desire to grow in their knowledge, understanding, and application of Scripture.
Women's ministry is organized around Titus 2 and built on five stated core values. Gospel means the ministry intentionally keeps a gospel orientation so that everything it does is an overflow of the gospel. Truth means holding to the biblical picture of womanhood regardless of cultural influence or opinion. Sound Doctrine means remaining accountable to the staff and lay eldership in order to articulate that picture in word and deed. Discipleship means seeking a balanced blend of sound doctrine taught in the context of covenant relationships that reflect that doctrine. Covenant means understanding relationships to mirror God's relationship to his people, which the church describes as sovereignly initiated, restorative, relational, compassionate, corporate, and generational.
The Titus mandate is put to work in a defined shape. Older women are equipped to train younger women, in small groups rather than one-on-one meetings, and the groups meet once a month so the ministry does not compete with other aspects of church or home life. Participants sign up for a year at a time within a four-year plan. Year one, Spiritual Mothering, emphasizes building relationships. Year two, By Design, helps women make a paradigm shift in their thinking about womanhood. Year three, The Legacy of Biblical Womanhood applies the principles of womanhood to life and relationships. Year four offers either Your Home - A Place of Grace or The True Woman, to help women solidify what they have learned and to begin thinking about where they will serve others in the body of Christ.
Children's ministry pairs the Gospel Story for Kids curriculum with materials for the home. The Gospel Story Bible is described as an easy-to-read storybook that introduces families to people, places, and events from the Old and New Testaments and shows how each one ultimately points to Jesus. Long Story Short for the Old Testament and Old Story New for the New Testament are devotionals that help busy parents pass on the gospel of grace to their children in about ten minutes a day, and each week's devotional corresponds with the Sunday lesson. On the first and third Sundays of each month, children's church gathers for a program devoted to spiritual growth and discipleship.
Youth ministry serves students ages 12 to 18, in grades 6 through 12. Its stated mission is to partner with parents, rooting these young people in the truths of the gospel and nurturing their growth in the Christian life, and it is the same youth group that takes part in mission work such as the World Changers trip.
The Back Table: Books and a Large Sermon Archive
The Back Table is the church's resource area, holding a bookstore and an audio archive of sermons that runs to 192 messages. Recordings can be sorted by preacher, Bible book, series, service, and date, and the listening goes back to 2014. Most of the messages were preached by Gary Robnett, with additional messages from Luke Perstrope, Nevin Koranda, Scott Lee, Jeff Kuebler, Geoff Kirkland, Stephen Albers, and guest speakers. The catalog shows a church that has moved through the Bible book by book, with messages on Genesis, Ruth, 1 Samuel, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Matthew, Luke, John, Romans, Philippians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, Titus, and Hebrews, among others. The recordings are gathered in the church's sermon archive.
Series names reveal the concerns of the pulpit. "The Reformation" begins with Martin Luther and sola scriptura. "How God Makes A King" works through 1 Samuel with messages on solitude, secrecy, sameness, and struggle. "God's Providence" carries the congregation through Joseph, Ruth, and Isaiah. "Leviticus: Christ, Our Sacrifice" gives sustained attention to the book's offerings, beginning with the burnt offering. "The High Cost of Discipleship" spends several weeks in John 15 on persecution and the price of following Jesus. "Seven Sayings of the Savior on the Cross" takes up the statements from the cross, including "The Word of Salvation" and "The Word of Forgiveness." Other series in the archive include Stronger Together, The Model Prayer, Getting the Gospel Right, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, Behold the Lamb, and a long run of messages on special occasions. The archive also distinguishes services by name, recording Sunday Morning, Sunday Evening, and Midweek Meeting messages, which preserves a picture of how the church has gathered over time.
Pastoral Counseling as Church Ministry
Pastoral counseling at Heartland is presented as a ministry of the local church to hurting people, and there is no charge; the church's aim is that God would be glorified in changed lives. The counselors do not claim to be certified psychologists. They are trained in the use of Scripture and the principles of biblical counseling, committed to the authority of God's Word, and unwilling to base counsel on any other opinion, experience, or concept of behavior. Their work concentrates on four elements drawn from Scripture.
Understanding the problem comes first. Rather than simply trying to fix feelings or change circumstances, the counselor makes biblical inquiry into the various levels of a problem in a spirit of gentleness so that a person can gain God's perspective on difficulties. Hope is the second element, resting on God's promise not to tempt beyond ability and on the truth that he uses trials for the benefit of those who respond biblically. Change is the third: a person learns to put off the old way of living and put on the new, which begins to please the Lord and bear fruit in every good work while increasing in knowledge of God. Practice is the fourth, because a believer is to be a doer of God's Word and not merely a hearer.
Because victory over problems depends on a consistent Christian walk, the church expects counseling to be accompanied by discipleship and fellowship in a local church, and counselees who belong to another congregation may request the help of their own leadership. Trustworthiness matters, and discussion of a situation is restricted to whatever is necessary to help the person overcome their problems. Before a first session, counselees complete an informational packet and counseling forms, including a consent to biblical counseling and a testimony sheet, and a member of the staff then sets up an appointment. Counselees are asked to arrive early, to bring a Bible, a notepad, and the signed consent form, and to do any homework before the next meeting. The pastoral counseling ministry also sets out the affirmations of biblical counseling in full, including that the Bible truly explains people and situations, that wise counseling requires ongoing practical theological labor, that our own sin is the fundamental problem in living, and that the fullest expression of counseling ministry occurs in local church communities where pastors shepherd souls while equipping and overseeing every-member ministry.
Missions: From the Family to the Ends of the Earth
Heartland describes a mission-minded church as one that continually seeks effective ways to communicate the gospel to non-believers in the family, the community, and the world, and it organizes that pursuit around the promise of Acts 1:8. Money and people both move outward. The church contributes regularly to the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention to support church planters and missionaries at home and across the globe, and it encourages special offerings for the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board. Quoting James 1:27, the church says it does not believe that religion is limited to caring for the orphan and widow, but that this is a great place to start, and it takes seriously the mission to care for those who cannot care for themselves. Members are also invited to join the mission projects directly.
South County Pregnancy Help Center receives help from church members who coordinate banquets and silent auctions, with Suzi Warren as the contact for volunteers. Monarch Jewelry, a local ministry, funds International Crisis Aid and The Covering House, organizations committed to bringing restoration and healing to the lives of people affected by sex trafficking, and it does so by crafting and selling unique jewelry. The church's nursing home ministry partners with several nursing homes throughout the greater St. Louis region for the purpose of sharing the gospel through preaching and a caring hand. Bill Treece and Al Haushalter, both dedicated members, serve five nursing homes on a monthly basis through the preaching of the word, and the church supports them by sending members to help residents reach the chapels and simply to be their friends.
The youth take part in World Changers in St. Louis, described as a complete approach to a student mission project that includes personal preparation, group development, and an understanding of an on-mission lifestyle. Students work on a needy resident's home and share the love of Christ through service, and the trip is meant to challenge them to move beyond a one-week experience toward a deeper and longer commitment.
Beyond St. Louis, the church supports The Timothy Project, a para-church organization that desires to serve the bride of Christ, the local church, and to help it fulfill the mandate of Acts 1:8 in unreached population segments in central Mexico. People can participate through prayer, short-term mission trips, and training for national pastors and church planters, and Paul Warren is the contact. Hope Harbor Orphanage works to operate as much like a home as possible, training children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, giving them an education and the skills they need to survive in the world they face, and preparing them to be God-fearing, upstanding citizens; the church provides financial support through Lenell Smith. The full range of mission partnerships is gathered under the church's missions work.
Where We Are Going
The direction of the church is set out under four headings: Where We Are Going, Let's Go, Spiritual Maturity, and Resources. The through-line is maturity. The archive carries a message on spiritual maturity from Philippians, where the race is described as being in front of the believer, and the covenant asks members to strive for the advancement of the church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort. Growth in grace is expected to continue throughout a believer's life, which is why the church keeps classes for every age, from babies in Sunday School to students in grades 6 through 12, and why men's and women's discipleship both operate on a long horizon with set curricula rather than single meetings.
Everything about Heartland's pattern is deliberate: Word-centered classes for every age, a covenant that asks for faithfulness rather than attendance alone, doctrine written down so it can be examined, a resource area with books and nearly two hundred recorded sermons, counseling offered without a fee, and mission work that runs from nursing homes in the St. Louis region to unreached communities in central Mexico. It is a church that names its purpose in two words, Honor God and Help People, and pursues that purpose from a building on Telegraph Road in Oakville, with a pastor at the pulpit, a worship leader on the team, a congregation gathering three times on Sunday and once on Wednesday afternoon, and a covenant that binds its members to one another.