Park Hill Baptist Church serves the Kansas City northland from its campus at 7609 MO-9 in Kansas City, Missouri, near Parkville. Its Sunday gathering begins at 10:30 a.m., both in person and through Facebook Live, and the church is known for biblical teaching, family fellowship, discipleship, and a call to follow Jesus beyond the church walls. PHBC is a family of believers gathered around God's Word, growing closer to one another and to God, caring for children, and extending grace and hope to people who are lost or broken.
A 10:30 Sunday Service with Room for the Whole Family
At PHBC, the Sunday service starts at 10:30 a.m., and early arrivals can grab coffee at the welcome booth. The gathering begins with singing, prayer, and Scripture, followed by a 40 to 45 minute expository sermon. It finishes before noon. A volunteer worship team leads a blend of traditional and contemporary songs sung to the risen Savior. Once each month, PHBC celebrates open communion and invites all believers in Jesus to participate. Sunday School begins at 9:00 a.m., giving families an earlier gathering before worship.
The same 10:30 service is streamed live on Facebook Live for people joining from anywhere. A smartphone, computer, or smart TV can bring viewers into the worship gathering, while the online team engages with them through the comments. The digital gathering remains part of the same church family centered on worship, prayer, Bible study, and conversations about what it means to follow Jesus.
A First Visit Built Around Welcome
A first-time guest can arrange a Plan Your Visit before arriving. The planned experience includes a greeting at the front door, an introduction to church members, help checking in children, a building tour, a saved seat in worship, and an introduction to the pastors. PHBC wants the first Sunday to feel smooth and easy while giving the guest and family time to meet people and become known.
The in-person campus stands at 7609 MO-9 in Kansas City, Missouri, near Parkville. Visitors can wear whatever they want. PHBC says it does not judge tattoos, clothing choices, or a person's past. The relaxed approach extends to the whole family, with the welcome team ready to answer questions about the church, children, and Bible-centered participation.
Sunday mornings also include coffee from the Eleos Coffee bar. Guests who prefer to brew their own can use a Keurig in the cafe just down the hall from the front entrance.
PHBC Kids from Newborns Through Fifth Grade
PHBC offers programs for newborns through fifth grade, and children begin with their families in worship. For little ones ages 0 to 4, a caring nursery is located on the main level. Parents can check in nursery and PreK children before or during the service. The toddler room combines free play with moments designed to help children practice sitting and listening. PreK children have their own lesson using The Gospel Project curriculum.
Kindergarten through fifth-grade children join their families in the worship center at the beginning of the service. Before the sermon, they move to the foyer and follow trained Children's Worship volunteers to age-appropriate rooms on the second floor. Their classes include fellowship, prayer, singing, and lessons from the New City Catechism curriculum.
Check-in begins 30 minutes before worship. Families may preregister children to save time at arrival. After worship, parents return to the check-in station with the ticket received during drop-off. The ticket matches the child's nametag and supports the church's safe pickup process.
Safety is a defined part of PHBC Kids. Every volunteer working with minors meets eligibility requirements in the church's Child Abuse Prevention policy, completes a detailed application, undergoes a background check, and finishes child-abuse prevention training. The church uses the MinistrySafe program for background checks and training. A hospitality team trained by Strategos monitors the church alongside security cameras on the main level. The teaching is age-appropriate, interactive, and designed for different learning styles, with the goal of raising disciples who understand Jesus and how he changes their lives.
Grow Groups and Youth Discipleship
PHBC's Grow Groups meet weekly and bring together people of all ages for fellowship and growth in Christ. Their approach reflects Titus 2, and participation can be in person or online. These groups are intended to help adults build relationships, discover places of service, and pursue a deeper life in the faith.
The church's Youth Discipleship program partners with parents and guardians to encourage young men and women as they grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. PHBC describes children and families as high priorities and seeks to involve parents in the spiritual formation of their children.
Join the Family, Grow in Christ, Go to the World
PHBC organizes its mission around three commitments: Join the Family, Grow in Christ, and Go to the World.
Join the Family
Park Hill Baptist Church understands the church as a family of men and women united by the forgiveness received through submitting their lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior. PHBC acknowledges that people continue to struggle with sin, so the family gathers for accountability to God's Word, mutual encouragement, and care for one another. The church also emphasizes patiently explaining the Bible and inviting people into a saving relationship with Jesus. Its purpose is not merely attendance, but a life shaped by faith, forgiveness, and fellowship.
Grow in Christ
Growth begins with fellowship with other believers, learning God's Word, and living in a manner worthy of the gospel. PHBC seeks to meet people where they are, help them understand their spiritual gifts, and deepen their knowledge of God and Scripture. After joining the fellowship, people attend a further class in which they identify spiritual gifts, explore doctrine and areas of Bible study that can support immediate growth, and develop a personal discipleship plan. The goal is to connect what a person learns with ways to serve.
Go to the World
Every believer is encouraged to share what God has done and to live out faith before the world. PHBC teaches that each person has distinctive gifts and a particular context in which the gospel can be shared. Evangelism training begins with telling others about God's work and encouraging them to discover what he can do in their own lives. The church expects this ministry to extend locally, nationally, and globally, sending people from its fellowship to serve in different places.
That outward direction is central to PHBC's vision of being a church without walls. Jesus calls his followers beyond the walls to reach the lost and broken, and the church seeks to become like the church in Acts, with fellowship inside the congregation joined by renewed care for the surrounding community. PHBC wants to extend grace to people without hope and lead them toward the hope found in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel: Sin, the Cross, and a Life Turned Around
At the center of PHBC's teaching is the gospel, meaning good news. Its explanation begins with the bad news: God is good, people fall short of his perfect standard, and sin brings death. The consequence is not only physical death but also spiritual death, described as the wrath of God in hell. This diagnosis explains why the gospel is described as good news and why Jesus' death and resurrection matter so deeply.
Jesus lived the perfect life that people could not live, and he never sinned. He then died in the place of sinners. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, demonstrating his victory over sin and making forgiveness available to all who believe in him. At the cross, the punishment belonging to sinners was placed on Jesus, while his perfect life was credited to those who trust him, ask him for forgiveness, and accept him as Lord and Savior. PHBC calls this the great exchange between sinners and the Savior.
The response to this gospel is trust and repentance. Trust means placing Jesus at the center of life rather than self or anyone else. Repentance is a complete turn away from the former way of living and toward the life God desires. PHBC presents both trust and repentance as something a follower of Jesus practices every day.
Baptist Beliefs About Scripture, God, and the Church
PHBC holds that the Holy Bible was written by people divinely inspired and is God's revelation, a perfect treasure of instruction that is wholly true and trustworthy. Scripture reveals how God judges humanity, serves as the standard for Christian unity and conduct, and bears witness to Christ, the focus of divine revelation. The church also affirms one living and true God, eternal and triune, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is described as Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler, worthy of love, reverence, and obedience.
Jesus Christ is affirmed as fully God and fully man. PHBC teaches that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, lived without sin, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. He is now exalted at the right hand of God as the one mediator between God and humanity, and he will return in power and glory. The Holy Spirit is fully divine, illuminating Scripture, convicting people concerning sin, enabling regeneration, comforting believers, and imparting spiritual gifts. The Spirit empowers the church for worship, evangelism, and service.
Human beings are made in the image of God, male and female, and every person possesses full dignity regardless of race and is worthy of respect and Christian love. Salvation is the redemption of the whole person and is offered freely through personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. PHBC understands salvation as including regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification, with no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus.
A New Testament church is described as an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers associated in the faith and fellowship of the gospel. Christ is its Lord, and the church is the body of Christ, extending the gospel to the ends of the earth. PHBC observes two ordinances: baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is immersion in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, symbolizing faith, death to sin, burial, and resurrection to new life. The Lord's Supper uses bread and the fruit of the vine to memorialize the Redeemer's death and anticipate his second coming. Pastors or elders and deacons are identified as scriptural offices; the pastor or elder office is limited to qualified men, while both men and women are affirmed as gifted for service.
Pastoral Leadership and Deacons for Care and Growth
Lead Pastor Seth Ross oversees all ministries at PHBC, places discipleship at the center of church leadership, and seeks to raise new leaders and recruit people for service. His stated aim is for all people to enter a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior. Matt Proctor serves as Youth and Worship Pastor. He desires to help teenagers grow in their knowledge and love of Jesus Christ and to help the entire congregation participate in worship.
PHBC's leadership team consists of men qualified under 1 Timothy 3 and helps oversee the ministry of the Word and prayer. The team pursues accountability, sound doctrine, discipleship, and prayer throughout the church's ministries. Brad Belcher serves on the team and as Deacon of New Members and Visitor Follow-Up, while also participating in worship, the welcome team, and other ministries. Nick McVay serves on the leadership team and has a heart for counseling and for seeing the Lord glorified in the local church. The deacons also include Daryl Garvis, who cares for current members and follow-up, John Overman, who oversees outreach, and Edwin Jackson-Kuofie, who serves in prayer.
Giving, Outreach, and Life Beyond the Campus
PHBC describes giving as an act of worship. One-time and recurring gifts can be made through online giving. Pastor Seth Ross frames financial giving as an expression of whole-life discipleship: people first dedicate themselves and their lives to the Lord, then use what God has entrusted to them for his glory and the needs of others. The church's teaching on stewardship includes time, talents, and material possessions. It encourages believers to give cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally.
Outreach is part of that outward mission. John Overman serves as Deacon of Outreach, and PHBC leadership expresses a desire to help people who are hurting in the community. The threefold mission prepares members to share the gospel and use their spiritual gifts in the places God has placed them. That direction can be seen throughout the church's expectation that ministry will reach beyond Parkville, reaching people locally and extending nationally and globally. Growth in Christ is therefore joined to a willingness to carry the gospel beyond the church walls.
These strands meet in one rhythm at Park Hill Baptist Church: worship at 10:30, children and families formed through PHBC Kids, people connected through Grow Groups, believers strengthened in the Word, and members sent to carry the gospel beyond the church. Park Hill Baptist Church keeps Jesus Christ at the center through biblical preaching, grace-filled fellowship, baptism, communion, discipleship, family ministry, and mission directed toward the lost and broken.