A Biblical Community on Judson Road
On a stretch of Judson Road in east Longview, Texas, Oakland Heights Baptist Church gathers a multi-generational congregation around a clear mission: being a biblical community of believers sharing Christ's redemptive purpose with the world. From its campus at 1607 Judson Road, OHBC (as members call it) has built a steady rhythm of teaching, fellowship and service that draws families, students, seniors and singles from across Gregg County. The church is known locally for its verse-by-verse midweek Bible study with Senior Pastor Michael Cook, its energetic student ministry called Verge, and a long-running partnership with missions in Honduras and Malawi.
The building itself is set up to host the full range of ministry life in one location. The Worship Center anchors Sunday gatherings; The Center, a gym-style Family Life Center, holds midweek Bible study, student worship, women's events and senior adult activities; The Chapel provides a smaller space for kid's choir and other gatherings; and a cluster of Sunday school rooms and meeting spaces (including rooms numbered in the 100s and 200s, plus The Den and the Fellowship Hall) handle the weekly menu of Bible studies, support groups and ministry planning meetings. KidsView Park, just outside, is the setting for the annual Easter Eggstravaganza and other family events.
Sundays at OHBC
Sunday is built around three back-to-back hours that move the whole church through worship and Bible study together. Small Groups I meets at 8:45 a.m., the Sunday Worship Service gathers at 9:45 a.m., and Small Groups II follows at 11:00 a.m. The Sunday worship service typically lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes. Three or four songs are sung, the congregation greets one another, and then one of the pastors preaches. Services are livestreamed at 9:45 a.m. Central on the OHBC YouTube channel for those who cannot attend in person, and sermon outlines are available to download for those who want to follow along or take notes.
First-time guests find reserved parking in the main lot just off Judson Road. Greeting team members direct visitors through the main entrance, where the Worship Center, restrooms, and a guest information table are easy to find. After the service, anyone new can stop by the guest table, meet a pastor, and pick up a free welcome gift. Casual attire is the norm - no one is expected to dress up.
More at Midweek: Wednesday Mornings in The Center
The defining midweek offering at OHBC is More at Midweek, a weekly Bible study that meets Wednesdays at 10:31 a.m. in the gym at The Center. Senior Pastor Michael Cook walks through Scripture verse by verse, surfacing key insights and practical application for daily life. The 10:31 a.m. start time is a deliberate echo of Acts 10:31. After the study, a $7 lunch is served, making the gathering as much about fellowship as about teaching. The study runs year-round and is open to anyone who wants to dig deeper into the Bible in a community setting.
Wednesdays continue into the afternoon and evening. A family meal is served from 5:00 to 5:45 p.m. during the school year. Adult Choir rehearses at 6:15 p.m. in the Worship Center, and the student ministry gathering, Verge, takes over The Center at 6:00 p.m. for grades 7 through 12. The full Wednesday rhythm - Bible study, dinner, choir, student worship - has become one of the church's trademarks.
OHBC Kids: Branching Out
Oakland Heights Baptist Church invests heavily in the next generation. The children's ministry, called Branching Out, covers babies through sixth grade and meets every Sunday during the worship hour in age-appropriate rooms. Heather Nunley serves as the Preschool and Children's Ministry Director. The goal, in the words of the church, is to connect kids and their families with the transforming love of Jesus Christ and to challenge them all week long to apply God's Word, model service to others, and share the good news of Jesus with those around them.
On a first visit, families stop at the Welcome Center just inside the glass front doors. The children's team will collect basic information - family members' names, children's names and birth dates, address, phone number, and any allergies or special instructions - and check children into the database. Each child and parent receive matching identification tags that are exclusive to that family and visit; the parent keeps one half, and a volunteer releases the child only to the matching tag at the end of the service.
Beyond Sunday mornings, the children's calendar stays busy. Kid's Choir meets several Sundays a year in The Chapel for a time of worship. Preteen Friday events take older elementary kids out for activities like scavenger hunts, Nerf wars, Medieval Times, Urban Air, and a Christmas White Elephant party. Preschool Craft and Play afternoons gather younger children in Room 104 for seasonal crafts (Valentine's, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fall). Parent's Night Out, offered several times a year, gives parents a free evening while kids from three months old through sixth grade enjoy snacks, games and supervised play. Easter Eggstravaganza fills KidsView Park with an egg hunt, games and entertainment for the whole family, and the annual OakFest each fall adds games, music, candy and face painting. Preteen Camp, held at Tall Timbers Kids Camp in Forest Hill, Louisiana, gives completed third through sixth graders a multi-day experience of recreation and Bible study in the summer.
OHBC Students: Verge on Wednesdays
The student ministry at OHBC serves students in grades 6 through 12, with the heart to introduce students to Jesus and then disciple them into believers who will, for a lifetime, love God, love people, and make disciples for the glory of God. Bobby Catt leads the ministry as Student Pastor.
The weekly student gathering is called Verge. It begins at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday nights in the Family Life Center, where students gather for activities, student-led worship music and a Bible study teaching time. Most evenings finish with small groups broken out by age and gender, so students have a place to be known and to pray for one another.
The student ministry also runs an annual summer camp experience, periodic student hangouts on Sunday afternoons, and graduate recognition during the Sunday service each May. The student ministry's ministry to families is intentional: parents are kept in the loop and students are challenged to take ownership of their faith between Wednesday gatherings.
Senior Adults: Game Nights, VBS and Trips Across East Texas
Gary Mason serves as Senior Adult Minister, and the church treats its senior adults as a core part of OHBC life rather than an afterthought. Senior Adult Game Night meets roughly once a month on Thursday evenings at 5:30 p.m. in The Center. Dinner is served first ($5), followed by cards, dominoes and other games. All adults are welcome to join.
Each August the church hosts Senior Adult VBS, four days of games, crafts, food and laughter for older adults, running Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to about noon in The Center. Seniors also gather regularly for trips across East Texas - past destinations have included Tyler for a day of Christmas shopping and lunch at Daniel Boone's, the Piney Woods Express train ride, and a Fall Hoedown at the Bar C Ranch with barbecue and live East Texas bluegrass and Southern gospel music. A monthly Senior Planning Meeting gives the group a chance to map out the calendar together.
Men's Ministry: 60 Minutes That Matter and Beyond
The men's ministry at OHBC centers on 60 Minutes That Matter, a recurring Thursday-morning breakfast gathering that runs from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. The format is straightforward: a hot breakfast, a brief devotion, and time praying as a group. It is designed to be an easy way for men to invite friends, family and coworkers into a low-pressure environment.
Beyond the monthly breakfasts, men's ministry includes an annual Men's Retreat at Lakeview Baptist Assembly (a weekend of outdoor fellowship, food and teaching), a Man Camp weekend at the same location, periodic backyard barbecues and Christmas feasts, and a Men's Honduras Mission trip each winter that partners with a seminary just outside Tegucigalpa. Past Bible study series have included Tony Evans' No More Excuses and a six-week study on the dilemmas and traps men face. David Miller, Lauren Leviton and Brian Steele have led men's Bible studies in recent years.
Women's Ministry: Bible Studies, Conferences and Queen For A Day
The women's ministry at OHBC runs a busy calendar of Bible studies, conferences and service projects. The core Bible study meets on Sunday evenings at 5:00 p.m., rotating through studies such as Priscilla Shirer's I Surrender All, Lisa Harper's Luke: Gut-Level Compassion, and Keep Holding On: 30 Promises From God You Can Cling to Right Now. Studies alternate between rooms 101 and 102 on the OHBC campus, and women of every stage of faith are welcome.
Annual highlights include the More Than This Women's Conference, a Friday evening and Saturday morning gathering that focuses on seeking Christ above all. Prayer Breakfasts gather women in The Den on Saturday mornings several times a year for food and a dedicated time of prayer. Howdy Neighbor Night and Neighbor Nights invite women to bring friends, neighbors and coworkers for a meal and fellowship. The annual Baked Potato and Bingo Night, hosted in The Center with Sarah Miller as the spirited bingo caller, raises money to support the signature Queen For A Day event each fall.
Queen For A Day is the women's ministry's flagship outreach. It is a single-day event held on the OHBC campus in which a team of volunteers treats women experiencing particularly difficult circumstances to facials, manicures, haircuts, a meal and other acts of care - what the ministry calls one day that can make a difference. Other recurring gatherings include Ladies' Night Out at area restaurants, a Cocoa, Carols and Christmas Cards evening at the home of Pastor and Becky Cook (which writes cards to military troops and assembles a care package), and Women's Bingo Night.
Worship Ministry: Choir and Orchestra
The Worship Ministry, led by Worship Pastor Kevin Funderburk and Associate Worship Minister Dr. Chris Smith, is the engine behind OHBC's blended Sunday worship. The vision of the ministry is to provide musical and spiritual training and support for anyone who wants to use their gifts in service to Christ, while offering spirit-led leadership in God-honoring corporate worship.
The Adult Choir is open to anyone with a desire to sing and rehearses on Wednesdays at 6:15 p.m. in the Worship Center. The Oakland Heights Orchestra welcomes intermediate and experienced players; rehearsal begins at 8:45 a.m. on Sundays in the Worship Center, and the orchestra accompanies congregational music and occasionally the adult choir during the 9:45 a.m. service. The Worship Ministry also has a rotation of tech team, vocal and instrumental volunteers who serve on Sunday mornings and during special events.
Connection Groups: Small Groups for Every Life Stage
Connection Groups are the backbone of the church's strategy for ministry beyond the Sunday gathering. As the church explains it, true ministry happens among a group of friends, not in a large worship service, and the expectation is that every OHBC attender would be connected to a small group for Bible study, prayer, fellowship, outreach and relationship building.
A small group at OHBC typically consists of four to fifteen people who meet weekly for spiritual growth and evangelistic outreach, with the goal of multiplication. Groups are life-stage focused and generally meet year-round. In addition to ongoing groups, the church runs seasonal studies (for example, the seasonal women's studies mentioned above) that run for a defined number of weeks and then launch a new group. The connection process is run through the church's online Church Center platform, where newcomers can browse available groups, sign up and log in.
SALT Outreach: Helping With Rent and Utilities
On Thursday mornings from 9:00 to 10:45 a.m., a team of OHBC volunteers meets people in need at the Family Life Center on the OHBC campus. The ministry, called SALT Outreach, helps with two specific kinds of financial pressure: rent (where applicants bring a lease agreement, an eviction notice and a photo ID) and utilities - electric, gas or water (where applicants bring a disconnect notice and a photo ID). The team meets those needing assistance most Thursdays and walks alongside them during a stressful season.
Beliefs
Oakland Heights Baptist Church holds to a classic evangelical Baptist statement of faith. The church believes that the entire Bible is the inspired, without-error Word of God, recorded by writers guided by the Holy Spirit. It confesses one God who exists in three distinct persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and affirms the deity of Christ Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, who will one day return.
The church teaches that all people were created by God for fellowship with Him but became alienated through sinful disobedience. Salvation is the free gift of God, available by faith alone, accomplished through the death and resurrection of Christ, and secured for eternity for the believer. OHBC affirms the reality of heaven as eternal union with God and hell as eternal separation from God. Christian living is understood as obedience to the Word of God and daily yielding to the Holy Spirit. The church itself is described as the body of Christ, with Jesus as its head, made up of those who have trusted in His finished work, existing to glorify God by loving Him and making Him known.
Vision: LEAD, Build, Guide, Serve
OHBC organizes its mission around four verbs. LEAD calls every believer to share Christ with the people around them, locally and globally, in response to Mark 16:15 and Matthew 24:14. Build calls the congregation to a lifestyle of generosity with time, talents and treasures, anchored in Matthew 6:19-21 and 2 Corinthians 9:11. Guide points people to the grace-filled life in Christ through Connection Groups, worship and service, drawing from Titus 2:11-12 and Romans 6:11-23. Serve reminds the church that spiritual gifts are given to be used intentionally in service to others, both inside the church and out in the city, in keeping with 1 Peter 4:10 and Matthew 23:11.
Missions: Honduras and Malawi
OHBC sends teams out of the country on a regular cycle. The Men's Honduras Mission trip partners with a seminary just outside Tegucigalpa, where the team engages the local community with the Gospel, works on small projects at the seminary, and serves in other ways as needed. Mission Malawi sends teams into villages for two weeks of door-to-door and hut-to-hut evangelism, in addition to working with local feeding centers, prisons and deep water well projects. Mission trips, retreats, VBS and the regular slate of church-wide events are organized through the OHBC Church Center platform.
Serving at OHBC
The church believes every member is called to serve, and offers a wide menu of serving opportunities. OHBC Students welcomes volunteers who love middle and high schoolers. OHBC Kids has openings for weekly, every-other-week, or fill-in roles that give kids consistency. The Hello Team focuses on hospitality from the parking lot to the Worship Center. The Worship Team welcomes vocalists and instrumentalists. The Tech Team runs lights, slides and audio behind the scenes. Those unsure where to start can request a conversation and someone will follow up.
Salvation, Baptism and Next Steps
Salvation is presented as the free gift of God received by faith alone, and baptism is described as the public next step that follows - a way of going public about a personal commitment to follow Jesus. The church welcomes conversations about both. Baby Dedication is offered during the Mother's Day worship service each May, when parents publicly commit to raising their children according to God's standards. A complete baptism and salvation resource is available through the church office.
Leadership
Michael Cook serves as Senior Pastor. Bobby Catt is Student Pastor. David Miller is the Administrative, Connections and Outreach Minister. Kevin Funderburk is Worship Pastor, with Dr. Chris Smith as Associate Worship Minister. Heather Nunley directs the Preschool and Children's Ministry. Gary Mason serves as Senior Adult Minister. The support team includes Jon Easterling (Technology Coordinator), Isaac Johnson (Small Group Coordinator), Lisa Redmon (Financial Administrator) and Gerry Wakeland (Ministry Assistant).
Visiting OHBC
OHBC is located at 1607 Judson Road in Longview, Texas. The office is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The phone number is 903-753-0291 and the general email is info@ohbc.org. Sunday worship is at 9:45 a.m., with small groups at 8:45 and 11:00 a.m. Parking is reserved for first-time guests in the main lot; enter through the glass front doors facing Judson Road and the Welcome Center team will take it from there. The Sunday service lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes, casual attire is fine, and a guest table with a free welcome gift is set up after each service for anyone who wants to learn more.
For those who cannot attend in person, the Sunday service is livestreamed at 9:45 a.m. Central on the OHBC YouTube channel, and sermon recordings, sermon outlines and an iTunes podcast are kept online. Giving is available online, by check during the Sunday service, or in person at the church office during the week.