A Gospel-Centered Church Serving Charlotte
Midwood Baptist Church sits on Mecklenburg Avenue in Charlotte's 28205 ZIP code, a single-story campus that has anchored this stretch of the city since 1896. The congregation describes itself in plain terms as "a gospel-centered church serving Charlotte," and that tagline frames everything from Sunday worship to Wednesday nights to a weekday Parents' Day Out preschool. John Maiden, who became lead pastor in July 2023, preaches from a tradition rooted in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and the rhythms of the week are built around prayer, Scripture, and shared life rather than a long list of programs.
Sunday Mornings on Mecklenburg Avenue
Worship gathers at 10:30 AM on Sundays, and the service follows a deliberately straightforward shape. The team describes it as a blend of hymns and contemporary songs, prayer, and gospel-centered preaching. Visitors are told to expect "a blend of hymns and contemporary worship, prayer, and gospel-centered preaching," and they are encouraged to come in whatever feels comfortable - the church notes that on any given Sunday "you'll likely find someone dressed just like you," whether that means shorts or a suit.
First-time guests are directed to a reserved parking lot to the left of the front entrance. From there, a walk leads to a first-time guest tent where a smiling face waits to welcome newcomers. After the service, the same team is available to answer questions and help visitors find their footing, with a contact form on the church's site for anyone who prefers to write ahead of time.
Just before the main service, at 9:45 AM, a group of adults gathers for Sunday School. The class works through Lifeway's Explore the Bible curriculum, studying books of the Bible in greater depth than the sermon allows and giving adults a regular place to ask hard questions in a smaller circle.
Midwood Kids and a Parents' Day Out Preschool
Children are a visible part of life at Midwood, both on Sundays and during the week. During the Sunday morning service, classes are offered for kids from birth through kindergarten. Children play, make crafts, eat a snack, and work through a Bible story using The Gospel Project curriculum, a three-year survey that walks through every book of Scripture and shows how each passage points to Jesus. Every teacher has been background checked and trained, and the ministry takes the safety and well-being of each child seriously.
Elementary-age children are invited into the main worship service with their parents. Activity packets are available in the welcome area so younger worshipers can engage with the sermon in their own way.
The same commitment extends into the week through Midwood's Parents' Day Out preschool, which serves children twelve months old through Pre-K. The preschool meets on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, with the school year running from the Tuesday after Labor Day to the Friday before Memorial Day. A separate Summer Session meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM across roughly eleven weeks in June, July, and August. The preschool's stated goal is to be "a safe, nurturing place for children to grow spiritually, physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially," pairing age-appropriate activities with a simple spiritual foundation that introduces children to the love of God. Tuition runs on a sliding scale between two-, three-, and four-day schedules, with discounts for additional siblings and for Midwood Baptist Church members.
Midweek, Sunday School, and Life in Community
The congregation is at pains to say it is more than a Sunday church. Midweek at Midwood meets most Wednesdays at 6:00 PM in the fellowship hall behind the church building. The schedule rotates: some weeks are set aside for men, others for ladies, and still others bring the whole church together. Midweek evenings typically include a shared meal, a time of teaching from God's Word, and the kind of unhurried conversation that builds real friendships. The pattern gives members a regular midweek anchor without locking anyone into a single format, and the weekly rotation is posted on the church's events page.
Adults also have the Sunday School hour at 9:45 AM as a second front door into community. Together, the two touchpoints - Wednesday night and Sunday morning - form the spine of discipleship at Midwood, with the church describing its core values as dependence on God through prayer, focus on God's glory, prioritizing God's Word, and unity for each other and for God's mission.
What Midwood Believes
The church's statement of faith is adapted from the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the confession shared across many Southern Baptist congregations. Scripture is held to be divinely inspired, totally true and trustworthy, and a unified testimony to Christ. There is one living and true God, eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each person fully divine yet without division of nature or being.
On salvation, Midwood teaches that it involves the redemption of the whole person and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, encompassing regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. The church practices two ordinances: believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper, which members observe as a memorial of Christ's death and a looking-forward to His return.
The congregation understands itself as an autonomous local body of baptized believers, governed under the Lordship of Christ through congregational processes and led by pastors and deacons. Its beliefs also address the family, marriage between one man and one woman, the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, the responsibility to oppose racism and sexual immorality, and the duty of every believer to share the gospel and make disciples of all nations.
The Pastoral Team
John Maiden is the lead pastor. A native of Alabama, he moved to North Carolina to study at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, graduating in 2016 with his Master of Divinity. He went on to serve more than five years as the Associate Pastor at The Church at Perry Creek in Raleigh before stepping into the lead pastor role at Midwood in July 2023. He and his wife, Sarah, have three children, and the family is deeply woven into the life of the church.
Anna Grace Baldwin directs Midwood Kids and the preschool. A 2009 graduate of UNC Charlotte, where she studied Public Health and Health Communications, she has been instrumental in developing the children's and preschool programs and has taught groups of children in a variety of settings.
Sarah Maiden serves as the church secretary and also assists in the preschool ministry. Margot Carnevale, who was married at Midwood in April 2023, coordinates communications for the church. Together the small staff team keeps the ministry week running, from Sunday services to Wednesday gatherings to the preschool classrooms.
Serving Charlotte and the World
Beyond the building, Midwood members take seriously the call to take the gospel to their neighbors and to the nations. The church has organized men's mission trips to western North Carolina, partnered with Operation Christmas Child during the November shoebox drive, and observed a 24-hour season of prayer and fasting each November. A women's pumpkin painting event and other seasonal gatherings give the congregation ways to invite friends from the surrounding neighborhoods into the life of the church.
Sermons are made available beyond the Sunday hour through an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, and an annual New Testament reading plan walks the congregation through Scripture together. The church also keeps an online store stocked with apparel, mugs, and recommended reading - everything from an ESV Study Bible and Habits of Grace to Man Up, Kneel Down, The Meaning of Marriage, and 5 Things to Pray for Your Kids - giving members a curated set of resources to support growth at home.
Giving, Resources, and Connection
Midwood offers three ways to give. Gifts can be brought to the Sunday worship service in person, set up as a one-time or recurring gift through Planning Center online, or mailed directly to the church office at 2029 Mecklenburg Ave., Charlotte, NC 28205. Visitors with questions about worship, children's ministry, or getting involved can reach the team by email or through the contact form on the church's site.
For families thinking about the preschool, registration packets for the school year and the summer session are available to download, and the preschool's calendar and tuition details are posted on the church's preschool page. With its 130th anniversary on the horizon, Midwood Baptist Church continues to point its people and its Charlotte neighbors to the same thing it has for more than a century: the gospel of Jesus Christ, taught plainly and lived out together.