A Greenville Landmark with a Two-Century Story
On Greenville Boulevard SE, set back from the busy commercial corridor that threads through eastern North Carolina, a brick sanctuary with a tall white steeple marks the home of The Memorial Baptist Church. The congregation considers itself a lighthouse for Christ in Greenville and traces its story all the way back to 1827, when a small group of Baptists constituted what was then known as the Greenville Baptist Church, the first Baptist congregation in the hamlet. In 1830, the infant church hosted the organizational meeting of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, a foothold in Baptist history that still shapes its identity.
Six decades later, the congregation built a second house of worship at Fourth and Greene Streets and dedicated it as a memorial to the Baptist denomination, taking the name The Memorial Baptist Church in the process. After more than 140 years downtown, the church moved in 1973 to a ten-acre suburban site on Greenville Boulevard, where the American colonial style sanctuary and an adjoining educational wing became the new center of congregational life. An expansion in the 1990s added a children's wing, fellowship hall, kitchen, office suite, music suite and church library. In January 2007, an intentionally set fire destroyed the children's wing and education wing and badly damaged the sanctuary, but an outpouring of help from other churches and volunteers enabled worship to continue while the building was rebuilt.
Today the congregation lives out a simple three-part mission, Worship God, Share Christ and Serve Others, and is guided by a vision to become a missional church, spreading the love of Christ through Bible-based preaching, teaching, Bible study and hands-on ministry. The church belongs to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, and North Carolina Baptists.
Sunday Mornings at TMBC
The Sunday rhythm at TMBC is built around two anchors. Sunday School for all ages begins at 9:45 a.m., and Morning Worship follows at 10:55 a.m. in the Sanctuary. The congregation describes its services as friendly and traditional: members greet one another before the service begins, the Trinity is chimed, hymns are sung with organ and choir, Scripture is read aloud, and Senior Pastor Dr. Brad Smith preaches a Bible-based message. Worship is shaped by a Casavant pipe organ, a grand piano, and choirs and ensembles of all ages, blending ancient hymns with newer songs.
At the same time, the church runs a parallel Spanish-language congregation called Iglesia Bautista Internacional de Greenville. That congregation meets for Bible School at 9:45 a.m. on Sundays and gathers for worship from 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall, with Bible study on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. Memorial supports the ministry with the goal of holistically discipling members of a growing Hispanic community in Pitt County and surrounding counties, welcoming families from across Latin America and English-speaking members who speak Spanish.
Sunday School for Every Stage of Life
TMBC treats Sunday School as a front door rather than a side program. Classes for children run from infancy through sixth grade, broken into three age groups, birth through two years, Preschool for ages three to five, and an older elementary group for first through sixth graders. Parents who prefer may keep infants and toddlers with the childcare staff through worship, while parents of children ages three through sixth grade are asked to pick them up for the service. Youth in grades seven through twelve meet on the second floor for their own Sunday School hour at 9:45 a.m.
Five adult classes span the rest of the life span. Journey is geared toward singles and couples in their twenties to forties, with lessons for new believers and seasoned Christians alike. Koinonia gathers couples and individuals in their late forties through seventies in a discussion-led format focused on life application. Families of Faith brings together adults with multi-age children around a lecture and dialogue Bible study, with periodic units on parenting and marriage enrichment. Truthseekers, made up of adults ages forty through sixty, leans into discussion and life application of biblical principles. Progressive is a class of roughly twenty-five senior adults in their sixties, seventies and beyond, working through textual and historical study of Scripture.
Children, Youth and the Memorial Baptist Preschool
The Children's Ministry is designed for students from birth through sixth grade and aims to teach the foundations of Christian life in age-appropriate ways. The youth program pulls in seventh through twelfth graders from many different schools in Pitt County, with activities and events designed to help students grow closer to Christ and to one another. Dr. Tyler Roach serves as Associate Pastor for Families, Formation, and Community Engagement and oversees much of this work.
Memorial Baptist Preschool, in operation since 1978, is a half-day, developmentally appropriate early childhood program for children fifteen months through PreK. Currently enrolling over 150 children with a staff of twenty, the preschool uses the WEE Learn Curriculum, sets up classrooms around learning centers that encourage a play-with-a-purpose approach, and offers a weekly music class along with a Wednesday Big Church gathering for three-year-olds and up. An early bird option provides an earlier drop-off for parents who need it, and the Brightwheel app keeps communication and payments simple. The preschool also runs a music program called Growing in Grace on Wednesday evenings during the school year, from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m., combining Bible stories, missions and music for preschoolers through sixth graders. Julie Turner serves as Director of Preschool.
Music and Worship Arts
Music holds a central place at TMBC. Dr. Andy Roby has served as Associate Pastor for Music and Worship Arts since October 2017, having previously led music ministry at First Baptist Church of Shelby, NC, and taught in academic settings across the South. His doctoral and master's work in church music and choral conducting comes from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he has led choirs and clinics in countries from Germany and England to Cuba, Brazil and Nicaragua.
The Chancel Choir is the weekly worship choir of the church and is open to adults without audition, rehearsing on Wednesdays from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m. and leading worship most Sunday mornings. Cantatas mark the seasons of the Christian year, often with orchestra. The Student Vocal Ensemble, drawn from seventh through twelfth graders and open to college students, meets Sunday afternoons at 5:00 p.m. during the academic year and occasionally travels on a week-long music-missions trip. The Chancel Handbell Choir rehearses Sundays at 5:45 p.m. throughout the school year. An Instrumental Ensemble, open to anyone who plays a band or orchestral instrument, joins Morning Worship several times each academic year, meeting at 9:15 a.m. on the Sundays it plays.
Adult Bible Study and the J.O.Y. Group
Two regular Bible studies shape the middle of the week. The Women's Bible Study meets Tuesday mornings at 9:30 a.m. and rotates through multi-week series; recent offerings have worked through Genesis passages on calling and relationships with material from Susan Snellings. Dr. Brad Smith's Wednesday Night Bible Study begins at 6:15 p.m. and welcomes all adults; recent series have explored obscure and puzzling passages of Scripture with attention to historical and cultural settings.
For older adults, the J.O.Y. Group (formerly the Senior Adult/Retiree Group) gathers at least once a month for a meal and a guest speaker, with several trips each year to places of interest. Long-time members keep a calendar of Threads of Love sewing gatherings on the first and third Mondays of the month at 10:00 a.m., and a relaxed TMBC Genealogy Group that meets a few times a year to share sources, help with dead ends, and learn how census records, military files and newspaper clippings can put flesh on the bones of family history.
Local Outreach and Global Mission
The congregation frames its missions work as Loving God and Our Neighbors from Greenville to the ends of the earth. Locally, TMBC partners with Backpack Buddies at Eastern Elementary School, a community food pantry, the Community Crossroads Center, the Kennedy Baptist Children's Home in Kinston, the Ronald McDonald House, Rise Against Hunger, a Ramp Ministry, Threads of Love, the Angel Shop, and the Cooperative Baptist Student Fellowship at East Carolina University. For more than a decade, the church has run a Street Fair Ministry at the Pitt County Fair, welcoming carnival workers from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe and South Africa into a tent just off the midway to meet physical and spiritual needs.
Internationally, TMBC fields a Haiti Mission Team, a Guatemala Mission Team, an El Salvador Medical Mission, supports Samaritan's Purse shoebox ministry, and sends a Youth Mission Team to Quebec. Hurricane buckets, blood drives, Vacation Bible School partnerships with neighboring Oakmont Baptist Church, and quarterly church conferences paired with an ice cream social round out the rhythm of the year.
Visiting TMBC
The church sits at 1510 Greenville Blvd SE, Greenville, NC 27858, with the main sanctuary entrance facing Greenville Boulevard. Ushers and greeters help visitors find seats and direct families with children to the nursery, preschool rooms, or the Children's Wing entrance near the playground at the rear of the building. Sunday School attendees are pointed to a side door marked office, where greeters will help them locate the right class. Children of all ages are welcome in the sanctuary during worship; childcare is offered for babies and toddlers, and toddlers through kindergarten are invited to Extended Session for age-appropriate Bible activities, usually after the children's message.
The church office can be reached at 252-756-5314 or info@tmbc.org. The preschool office can be reached at 252-756-8167 or preschooldirector@tmbc.org. Worship services are livestreamed on YouTube for those who cannot attend in person. Giving is available online through Zeffy, by check or cash in the offering plate or by mail, and through automated bill pay from a bank or credit union.
Pastoral and Program Leadership
The pastoral team is led by Senior Pastor Dr. Brad Smith, whose Wednesday Night Bible Study is a regular touchpoint of the congregation. He is joined by Dr. Andy Roby as Associate Pastor for Music and Worship Arts, Dr. Tyler Roach as Associate Pastor for Families, Formation, and Community Engagement, and Christian Powell as Interim Music Director. Fran Wilson serves as pianist and Hyeeun Hahm as organist. Julie Turner directs the preschool, and Louise Wilson serves as secretary of the preschool. Behind the scenes, Em Troyan coordinates office administration and communications, and Kristi Woolard serves as church accountant. New or returning members can sign in through the church's Realm system.