A Reformed Bible Church on Menaul Boulevard
Heritage Christian Fellowship gathers on the south side of Menaul Boulevard NE, just west of Juan Tabo in northeast Albuquerque. The congregation describes itself as an independent, reformed Bible church - a non-denominational fellowship of believers under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Their motto, "Exalting Christ Through His Word," runs across the church's materials, and the verse they hold as a banner is Colossians 1:28: "And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ." Everything at Heritage is organized around that single purpose: knowing Christ, being conformed to His image by the power of the Holy Spirit, and giving Him the glory that is His alone.
The church sits in a steady rhythm of three weekly gatherings: a Sunday morning worship service, an Adult Sunday School hour, and a Wednesday evening service. Around those meetings, a broad program of Bible reading, discipleship, men's and youth ministry, and an annual community outreach keeps the congregation active throughout the week. The office is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, and the pastor-elders are reachable by phone at (505) 323-0557 or through the church's online form.
Sunday Worship and Adult Sunday School
Heritage's main weekly service is the Sunday morning worship gathering at 10:30 am. The format centers on expository, verse by verse preaching of Scripture, accompanied by congregational singing, prayer, and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Communion is observed as part of the gathered assembly, and new members are normally introduced to the congregation at the next communion service after they complete membership class. The pastor-elders preach sequentially through books of the Bible - the recent sermon series have walked through Acts from January through August 2026 and the Psalms, with an ongoing series titled "In His Image 2026-2027" running through the Adult Sunday School hour. Sunday handouts accompany each week's message and are posted online.
Adult Sunday School meets before the worship service. The hour is structured around systematic, verse by verse teaching as well, with extended series such as the 34-message "The Sovereignty of God 2025" walking through doctrines of grace - the sovereignty of God in creation, providence, redemption, foreordination and decree, divine sovereignty and prayer, the testimony of church history from Pelagius to Calvin, the differences between Calvinism and Arminianism, and human inability. Other Adult Sunday School series have included topical work on the Psalms and the current "In His Image 2026-2027" study on the doctrine of salvation.
Wednesday Evening Worship
Midweek, the church meets again for worship and teaching. Wednesday Evening Worship begins at 6:30 pm and follows a similar pattern to Sunday morning - prayer, expository teaching from Scripture, and an unhurried time of fellowship. Recent Wednesday series have included "Why Trust the Bible?" taught by Pastor-Elder Benjamin Gonzalez. The Wednesday night rhythm has been a mainstay of the church for many years. Pastor-Elder Tim Maxwell taught a 63-message series through the Psalms at the Wednesday service between July 2009 and September 2011, a foundational season for the congregation's Bible teaching.
Six Convictions That Shape Everything
Heritage lays out six core values that shape its ministry. They flow from a high view of God and a high view of Scripture, then into the Gospel, the local church, sanctification, and discipleship.
A High View of God. The church values the Triune God above everything, pursuing Him as Creator of all things and the paragon of all virtue. To know God and to love Him is the all-consuming passion of the believers at Heritage, and continual proclamation of His character and nature is treated as the very definition of worship.
A High View of Scripture. The 66 books of the Christian canon are held to be all sufficient, infallible, and inerrant - the true and divine revelation of God Himself. Clear and expository Bible teaching is described as "a fundamental element in our worship." Heritage reads straight through books of the Bible rather than picking disconnected passages.
The Gospel. The Person and work of Jesus Christ stands at the center of the church's worship: His perfect life of obedience, His atoning sacrifice, and His resurrection. Justification is held to be by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and the cross is celebrated as the supreme display of God's love.
Commitment to the Local Church. Heritage teaches that every Christian is baptized into the body of Christ upon conversion and is called to live out the Christian life in a specific local assembly. The local church is where Christian sanctification happens, where the many "one another" commands are practiced, and where members consider one another family.
Progressive Sanctification. Becoming like Christ is chief among the pursuits of the congregation. Sanctification is described as the work of God in which the believer cooperates, bearing the fruit of the Spirit in daily life and growing in humility and forbearing love.
Discipleship. The principles of fellowship, teaching, mentoring, spiritual authority, and accountability are central. Heritage strives to form and equip mature disciples who will themselves become disciple makers.
Elder-Led, Verse by Verse
Heritage Christian Fellowship is governed as an elder-led church. The leadership page opens with a statement of conviction: "We at Heritage Christian Fellowship strive to follow the only form of church government modeled in the Scriptures. We participate in a Theocracy. We are an elder-led church where the elders operate in plurality under the headship of Christ."
The reasoning is laid out at length. Jesus Christ, as the head of the Church, governs His Church by choosing and ordaining its leadership. The New Testament, the church argues, gives no evidence of apostles and elders ever being elected by popular vote; they were always appointed after being recognized as those called and equipped by God for the task. After the ascension, Christ's authority on earth was first administered by the apostles, then delegated to elders in local churches as persecution scattered believers beyond Jerusalem. Words used synonymously with "elder" in the New Testament - overseer, presbyter, bishop, shepherd, and pastor - are held to reflect different aspects of one shared office rather than a hierarchy.
The elders bear a heavy and specific charge: preach God's Word accurately and completely, be faithful "in season and out of season," reprove, rebuke, and exhort, be aware of and resist the dangers of the times, be sober and self-controlled, willingly endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and accomplish all that God gives them to do. Because that work leaves little time for practical matters, Scripture also models the office of deacon - flexible, service-oriented assistants to the elders focused on the practical needs of the congregation.
The Pastoral Team
Five pastor-elders share the shepherding of the church: Greg Ferreri, Benjamin Gonzalez, Jeff Katt, Dave Knowles, and Shaan Sloan. Each of them preaches and teaches in the regular services. Dave Knowles and Shaan Sloan have carried much of the recent Sunday pulpit - Knowles through the Psalms series and Sloan through portions of Acts and the series "The Sovereignty of God 2025" and "In His Image 2026-2027." Benjamin Gonzalez preached through Acts early in 2026 and launched the "Why Trust the Bible?" series on Wednesday nights in September 2026. Jeff Katt and Greg Ferreri round out the preaching rotation, with Ferreri teaching a portion of the Sovereignty series and Katt preaching on Acts 12.
Three deacons serve alongside the elders: Kyle Bamberg, Anthony Cook, and Dave Plugge. They focus on the practical needs of the congregation so that the pastor-elders can give their full attention to teaching, prayer, and pastoral care.
What Heritage Believes
Heritage's Statement of Faith is laid out under two headings - Orthodoxy (what they believe) and Orthopraxy (how they practice it) - and gives a thorough account of the reformed evangelical faith.
On God. Heritage confesses one true God existing in three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - co-eternal, co-equal, and executing distinct but harmonious offices. God is holy, sovereign, personal, all-knowing, everywhere present, all-powerful, loving, gracious, and merciful. The Father orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose; the Son is the eternal Son of God, fully God and fully man, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for sin, was raised, ascended, and ever lives to make intercession; the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, convicts of sin, regenerates the sinner, baptizes the believer into the body, indwells the believer, and guides into all truth.
On salvation. Salvation is treated as the work of the sovereign God. Regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification are all divine acts. Justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of the redeeming work of Christ alone. The ordinances of the church are baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper; only believers who have made their faith publicly known through baptism are invited to the table.
On the Bible. The Holy Scriptures are inspired by God - God-breathed - not only in the general sense but in every word, and are without error and infallible as originally given. The eldership, being under the authority of Jesus Christ, bears the responsibility of being the final interpretive authority on the meaning of Scripture at Heritage Christian Fellowship.
On last things. Heritage looks for the bodily, visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of all mankind, final judgment, the destruction of the present heavens and earth and the creation of new ones, eternal punishment for the unsaved, and eternal life in the presence of God for the saved.
Marriage, Life, and Biblical Standards
The Orthopraxy section addresses marriage, divorce and remarriage, gender and sexuality, and the sanctity of life with equal directness.
Marriage is defined as a covenantal union between one man and one woman, ordained by God for life. Within the Christian community, marriage is allowed only between two Christians, and divorce is permitted on two biblical grounds only: adultery and desertion by an unbelieving spouse. Remarriage is permitted only when a divorce is established on one of those grounds. Couples who wish to be married by an HCF pastor-elder are asked to undergo pre-marital counseling with a pastor-elder beforehand.
On gender and sexuality, the Statement of Faith teaches that God created mankind as male and female, that sexuality is designed by God to be experienced within the covenant of marriage, and that any expression of sexual intimacy outside of marriage is sexual immorality and forbidden.
On the sanctity of life, Heritage teaches that mankind bears the image of God, that God does not grant permission for homicide or suicide, and that abortion is homicide.
Membership, Discipline, and Pastoral Care
Prospective members join Heritage Christian Fellowship by verbal affirmation in the presence of the congregation after completing both a four-session membership class and an interview with the elders. In the interview, they give a credible profession of faith, affirm submission to the authority of the Bible, and acknowledge alignment with HCF's Statement of Faith. The class meets on four consecutive Sundays at 9:00 am in the Navy Room, and the elders strongly encourage current members who have not taken it before to attend. New members are normally introduced to the congregation at the next communion service.
The membership process is described as the church's way of identifying those who have committed to Heritage as their local church and submitted themselves to its pastoral and diaconal care. The elders are then able to know those for whom they must give an account to God for their souls. Members in good standing may request to be removed from the roll at any time; requests from those under church discipline are reviewed individually.
Heritage practices biblical church discipline. If a member is found to be in unrepentant sin, the pattern set out in Matthew 18 is followed: private admonition, then with two or three witnesses, then before the entire membership, then removal from fellowship as a last resort - always with the goal of restoration. The congregation also commits to dealing with public sins and to avoiding divisive individuals.
Reading the Bible Together in a Year
Heritage runs a daily Bible reading plan that walks through the entire Bible in a year. A new reader can begin at any point in the calendar; if the pace is too aggressive, the church encourages modifying it. Each day's reading covers specific chapters from specific books. January starts in Genesis and works through Exodus; February covers Leviticus through Deuteronomy; March continues through Joshua and into 1 Samuel; April moves into 2 Samuel and the Kings; May and June run through Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, and into the Psalms; July and August continue through the Psalms and the major prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah; September through December finish Ezekiel, Daniel, the minor prophets, and the New Testament through John. The plan is one of three the church uses, and links open each day's text in Logos.
Youth, Men, and Community Outreach
Proclaim Youth Ministry is the church's program for teens 13 and over. It meets in homes rather than at the church building - recent gatherings have been held at the Biava home and at the Davis home. In addition to regular meetings, the youth host a Fall Party each year.
Men's Ministry gathers monthly around a shared meal. The dinners are held on Tuesday evenings at 6:00 pm, with dinner provided and all men welcome. A sign-up sheet is kept on the back table at church.
Once a month, the whole church shares a Sunday fellowship lunch following the morning worship service. Members bring food for their own family and to share, and help with set-up and clean-up.
Each year on October 31, the church hosts "Tests for Treats," a community outreach in the neighborhood. Volunteers help plan and run the event, and a sign-up sheet is posted at the foyer table in the weeks leading up to it.
On the first Sunday of selected months, all loose change and bills in the offering plate go to the missions budget - the church calls this "Loose Change for Missions."
Giving, the Church Center App, and the Calendar
Heritage Christian Fellowship is a 501(c) not-for-profit corporation and is exempt from federal income tax. Giving is offered online through the Church Center platform (Planning Center), which accepts credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and direct bank transfers and lets members set up recurring donations and view their giving history. The Church Center app also handles giving. PayPal is still listed as a giving method but is being phased out. Contributors who include a shipping address receive a tax receipt.
The Church Center app is also where members can find the church calendar. The calendar shows the regular Sunday and Wednesday services as well as the membership class, men's dinners, youth gatherings, fellowship lunches, and other events.
Visiting Heritage
First-time visitors are warmly invited to either of the weekly services. Sunday Worship begins at 10:30 am, and Wednesday Evening Worship begins at 6:30 pm. Adult Sunday School meets on Sundays before the service. The church building sits on the south side of Menaul Boulevard NE, just west of Juan Tabo, at 11104 Menaul Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112-2454. Office hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.
Anyone wanting to know more about the church - or considering membership - can sign up for the four-session membership class at the back table on Sundays. Couples who want to be married by a Heritage pastor-elder should contact the church office to arrange pre-marital counseling. For doctrinal questions, the Statement of Faith, Core Values, and Elder-Led Church pages lay out the convictions that shape the congregation's life together.