Tucked along Mount Vernon Church Road on the western edge of West Monroe, Louisiana, Mt. Vernon Baptist Church has been a steady presence in Ouachita Parish for generations. The congregation gathers under a clear and simple banner: Worship God. Walk with others. Win the world. That three-part rhythm shapes everything from Sunday morning services to Wednesday night meals, from the children's classrooms to a community basketball league that has been running for more than forty years.
The church sits in a quiet country setting a short drive from downtown West Monroe, where Mount Vernon Church Road curves away from the main thoroughfares and opens onto the church's campus. Mt. Vernon describes itself as a Southern Baptist church, and its statement of faith is the Baptist Faith and Message (2000), the confession of the Southern Baptist Convention. From the earliest Bible lessons for newborns to the senior adult classes, the goal is the same: to bring others to Christ through relational discipleship.
Mission, Values, and Strategy
The congregation states its purpose plainly. The mission is to bring others to Christ through relational discipleship. The values center on building Christian relationships with others through love and service. The strategy is to build a firm foundation on biblical teaching, relational experience, and shared service.
In practical terms, that strategy shows up in a packed weekly calendar. Sunday school begins at 9:00 AM, followed by the main worship service at 10:15 AM. Discipleship training returns at 6:15 PM on Sunday evenings, and the midweek gathering convenes at 6:00 PM on Wednesdays with something for every member of the family. Visitors who want to let the church know they are coming can fill out a connect card on the church's contact page.
What We Believe
Mt. Vernon adopts the Baptist Faith and Message (2000) as its confession of faith, the doctrinal statement of the Southern Baptist Convention. The document begins with a high view of Scripture: the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man, a perfect treasure of divine instruction that is totally true and trustworthy, with Christ as its focus.
From there the confession unfolds across eighteen articles. There is one true and living God who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons sharing one divine nature. The Son, Jesus Christ, is fully God and fully man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, crucified for sin, raised from the dead, ascended to the right hand of God, and coming again in glory. The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, convicts of sin, regenerates the believer, baptizes each one into the body of Christ, and seals the redeemed until the final day.
Humanity, made in the image of God, fell into sin through the disobedience of the first man, and every person inherits a nature inclined toward sin. Salvation is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and it embraces regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. Election is God's gracious purpose carried out through means that never override human responsibility. Believers, kept by the power of God, will persevere to the end.
The church is described as an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, and governed by its scriptural officers of pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, 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, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience memorializing the Savior's death and anticipating His return.
The confession also addresses God's purpose of grace, the kingdom, last things, evangelism and missions, Christian education, stewardship, cooperation among churches, the Christian and the social order, peace and war, religious liberty, and the family. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime, and children from the moment of conception are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.
A Week at Mount Vernon
The week's shape begins on Sunday morning. Sunday school meets at 9:00 AM with classes for every age, from nursery through senior adults. Members often describe Sunday school as one of the warmest entry points for new families, because each class functions as a small community where people know one another's names.
The morning worship service follows at 10:15 AM. Worship at Mt. Vernon draws on the resources of a dedicated music ministry. The congregation is supported by a choir that rehearses in the LOVE building, a praise band that practices Sunday mornings, and a media team that runs the sound, video, and livestream equipment. Music ranges from classic hymns to newer praise songs, and the order of service gives room for both the reading of Scripture and expository preaching. Visitors are welcome to come as they are; there is no dress code beyond the standards common to Southern Baptist churches in northeast Louisiana.
Sunday evening brings Discipleship Training at 6:15 PM, a quieter hour focused on Bible study and practical Christian living. Then on Wednesday the midweek gathering opens its doors at 6:00 PM with separate tracks for adults, students, and children, giving every generation a reason to come back before the weekend.
Kids Ministry
Mt. Vernon Kids exists to help children grow in the knowledge of Christ from their earliest years. The ministry runs two weekly touchpoints. On Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM, children from newborns through fifth grade gather for graded Sunday school classes that meet during the adult Sunday school hour. The classrooms move chronologically through the Bible and aim to plant a working familiarity with the stories, characters, and themes of Scripture.
On Wednesday nights at 6:00 PM, the kids return for Team Kid, an after-school gathering that runs alongside the adult midweek programs. Team Kid welcomes children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and gives them a separate worship and teaching time tailored to their stage. Tracey Saterfield serves as the Children's Director, overseeing both programs and partnering with parents to reinforce what is taught at home.
Student Ministry
The Student Ministry at Mt. Vernon is built around three verbs: to lead students to desire Jesus above all else, to develop an authentic faith, and to devote their lives to the service of the church and the surrounding communities for the advancement of the gospel.
Middle and high school students gather for MDWK, the Wednesday night student program that starts at 5:45 PM in the church gym, fifteen minutes before the adult midweek service begins. MDWK combines fellowship, teaching, and small groups, giving students a place to ask honest questions and build friendships with peers and older mentors. Tara Magee serves as the Youth Director and oversees MDWK along with the rest of the student ministry.
The Student Ministry also stays connected outside of Wednesday nights through its social channels, where parents and students can keep up with events, summer trips, and announcements about upcoming gatherings.
Women's Ministry
The Women's Ministry at Mt. Vernon centers on community. Women gather for fellowship events throughout the year, and the GROW groups ministry offers a smaller-circle option for those who want to study together. GROW groups are short-term Bible study cohorts that meet in homes and on the church campus; new groups launch periodically, and the church plans to roll out a fresh round of GROW groups for the fall season.
Worship Ministry
Music is a central part of who Mt. Vernon is. The Worship Ministry is led by Glenn Naylor, who also serves as Minister of Music and Outreach. Three teams make up the ministry.
The choir rehearses at 5:00 PM, traditionally on Sunday afternoons, in the Choir Room located in the LOVE building, and it sings regularly during the morning service. The praise band practices at 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings and leads contemporary music alongside the choir. The media team handles sound, lighting, and video, and its work supports both the in-person services and the recordings posted online for those who cannot attend.
Anyone interested in joining the praise band or serving on the media team can reach out to Glenn directly through the church's contact page.
Basketball: A Forty-Year Community Tradition
Beyond its worship and study ministries, Mt. Vernon is well known in West Monroe for its community basketball program, which has been running for more than forty years. Open to students across the parish, the league treats basketball as a character-building exercise rooted in Scripture.
The program emphasizes teamwork, citing Ecclesiastes 4:9 - Two are better than one; Because they have a good return for their labor. It emphasizes discipline, citing 2 Timothy 2:5 - And also if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. And it emphasizes character, citing Philippians 2:3-4 - Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.
Tryouts are typically held in early November, and the season runs through the winter and early spring. Registration carries a modest per-student fee to cover gym time, uniforms, and equipment. The church uses the program as a way to welcome families from across the community, regardless of whether they already attend Mt. Vernon on Sundays.
Practice Laps: A Library of Teaching
For those who want to keep learning between Sundays, the church maintains an extensive teaching library called Practice Laps. Hosted on the Church Media page, the series features more than 160 short episodes on topics ranging from the theology of atonement and the work of the Holy Spirit to practical questions about alcohol, anxiety, forgiveness, and how to study Scripture. Pastor Chad Ballard leads most of the teaching, and the series moves steadily through biblical books and doctrines.
A second teaching series walks through the letters to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, with a video for each congregation in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia. Lord's Day Sermons from the Sunday morning services are also posted in the same media archive.
RightNow Media, a streaming library of Bible teaching videos for all ages, is offered free to anyone connected with the church. Members and regular attenders can request a personal account and use the resource for personal study or small group preparation.
Leadership
The pastoral team at Mt. Vernon is small and close-knit. Chad Ballard serves as the Pastor of the church and provides the primary preaching and pastoral oversight. Glenn Naylor is the Minister of Music and Outreach, leading the worship ministries and coordinating the church's outreach into the community. Tara Magee serves as the Youth Director and Church Administrator, leading the student ministry and managing the church's day-to-day operations. Tracey Saterfield is the Children's Director, overseeing Mt. Vernon Kids, Sunday school classes for children, and the Wednesday night Team Kid program.
Visiting Mount Vernon
Visitors will find the church easy to reach at 215 Mt. Vernon Church Road, just a short drive west of downtown West Monroe. Sunday morning begins with Sunday school at 9:00 AM, followed by the worship service at 10:15 AM. The worship service blends hymn-singing with contemporary praise music, includes congregational prayer, special music, and expository preaching, and usually runs just over an hour.
Children are welcomed from the moment families arrive. Newborns through fifth graders have a graded Sunday school class at 9:00 AM, and older students in sixth through twelfth grade are invited to leave the adult worship service for a junior church option during the sermon portion of the morning when one is offered. On Wednesday nights, the church runs parallel programming for adults, students, and children so that families with children of different ages can worship, learn, and play together without one group sitting idle.
Those who want to give can do so online through the church's giving partner, or in person during the services. Anyone with questions about the church, its ministries, or how to get involved is invited to call (318) 323-0055 or send a message through the contact page. Social updates, photos, and announcements are posted on the church's Facebook page and Instagram feed, and a Linktree page collects all of the church's online tools in one place.
Mt. Vernon Baptist Church is a Southern Baptist congregation rooted in Scripture, organized around weekly rhythms of worship and study, and shaped by a long tradition of investing in the families of West Monroe - whether through Sunday school classes, Wednesday night programs, women's GROW groups, a worship ministry that spans choir, band, and media, or a community basketball league that has introduced generations of young people to the church and to each other.