A Cornerstone on Perrin and Palmetto
Plain Dealing Baptist Church meets in a familiar spot in downtown Plain Dealing, at the corner of N. Perrin and E. Palmetto streets. The congregation's stated purpose is short and direct: "to Love God and Love People." The church is part of the wider Southern Baptist network of congregations and traces its ministry through cooperative missions work in the United States and abroad.
Sunday Mornings at PDBC
The church gathers three times on Sundays. Small group Bible study for every age starts at 10:00 AM, giving children, students, and adults a parallel hour of teaching from God's Word before the wider congregation comes together. Worship follows at 11:00 AM, a service the church describes as "an exciting time of worship and teaching designed for you to take with you and apply where you live, work and play." During this hour the church provides a nursery for the youngest children, an Extended Session for preschoolers, and Children's Church for school-age kids, so families can worship together without distraction.
In the evening the adults return at 6:00 PM for "Table Talk," an adult discipleship hour built around digging deeper into the passage preached that morning and applying it to everyday life. Childcare is offered during this hour as well.
What to Expect as a First-Time Visitor
The congregation describes itself as casual and has no dress code, so newcomers are invited to come as they are. From nursery through senior adults, the church says, "there is a place for the entire family." Worship services include congregational singing and Bible teaching, with sermons drawn straight through books of the Bible such as Philippians, Matthew, and Joshua. Recent series have walked verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount and the book of Philippians, with messages titled after the passage covered (for example, "The Danger of Anger" from Matthew 5, "Pressing On Toward the Goal" from Philippians 3, and "The Story of Two Foundations" from Matthew 7).
The main entrance is on N. Perrin, with the south-side door on Palmetto Street reserved for children's drop-off and pick-up.
What the Church Believes
Plain Dealing Baptist Church publishes a confession of faith built around fourteen core teachings. They hold that the Bible is the Word of God "without any error, the sole authority for life and faith." They affirm one God who exists in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, born of a virgin, fully God and fully man, who lived a sinless life, died as a substitute for sinners, was buried, rose bodily, and ascended to Heaven.
The church teaches that the Holy Spirit convicts unbelievers of their need for salvation and acts as Comforter and Guide to every believer. Humanity, they say, was made in God's image but fell through Adam, so that all people are sinners who need salvation. Salvation itself is a gift received through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and those who are truly saved are eternally secure in Christ.
Baptism is practiced as an act of obedience after salvation, by immersion. The church is understood as a local body of baptized believers with Christ as its Head. Members look forward to the bodily, visible return of Jesus Christ and believe in eternal Heaven for the redeemed and eternal separation from God for those who die in their sins. Marriage is defined as the lifelong union of one man and one woman. The church also affirms the priesthood of every believer, the separation of church and state, and the call for Christians to be "salt and light" in society.
Leadership
Rev. Alan Brown has served as Pastor of Plain Dealing Baptist Church since August 2020. He first joined the staff in October 2018 as Family Discipleship Pastor. Before ministry, Alan spent 25 years in retail before surrendering to a call to ministry and missions in 1997. He and his wife Donna served five years in local church ministry at Eastwood Baptist in Haughton and twelve years as missionaries to Mexico with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He holds B.A. and M.Div. degrees from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and serves as a trainer for the discipleship ministry Live Life on Mission. He and Donna have been married since 1977 and have two children and three grandchildren.
Blade Foster is the Student Minister, joining the team in the summer of 2024 with his wife Kalynn. Originally from the Shreveport-Bossier area, the Fosters returned to Louisiana to serve middle and high school students in the Plain Dealing community. They recently welcomed their first child, a son named Griffin.
Norma Anderson has led worship at PDBC since 2011. A retired elementary principal, she also works as an adjunct clinical educator at LSU-Shreveport. She is married to David, has one son, and enjoys golf, fishing, and riding side-by-sides.
TeamKID on Wednesday Nights
One of the church's most visible children's ministries is TeamKID, a Wednesday evening program for kids ages three through sixth grade. TeamKID runs from 6:00 to 7:30 PM during the school year and begins each night with a light meal of kid-friendly foods such as chicken nuggets, tacos, or spaghetti. After the meal, kids gather for a Bible story, games, and activities, closing the evening with singing, the pledges and TeamKID motto, and a missions lesson about missionaries around the world. The new TeamKID year typically kicks off in mid-August, and pre-registration is available through the church's online form. Drop-off and pick-up happen at the south entrance on Palmetto Street, marked by a TeamKID banner, and the program maintains its own Facebook page for announcements.
Students, Men, and the Midweek Rhythm
On Wednesday evenings at 6:00 PM, students in seventh through twelfth grade gather across the building for student discipleship while adults meet for a prayer meeting. The church's calendar also includes a Tuesday morning men's discipleship and Bible study at 10:00 AM, giving men of the congregation a weekday hour to study God's Word together. Together these midweek offerings give children, students, and adults three different entry points into the life of the church during the week.
Sermons and Media Library
Plain Dealing Baptist Church records its Sunday messages and makes them available as audio through the church's media page. The archive runs across thirty-one pages, with recent sermons preached from Matthew 5 through 7 as part of a Sermon on the Mount series and earlier messages from a study in Philippians titled "Rejoice in the Lord." Other recent series include "Is Your God Too Small?" (a study in the Psalms), "Knowing and Following Jesus" (drawn from John's Gospel), "Old Testament Stories" (a walk through Joshua), and an Advent series called "The King" tracing the Christmas story through Matthew. Preachers listed in the archive include Rev. Alan Brown, Blade Foster, Rev. Eric Zimmer, Kyle Williams, Dr. Scott Teutsch, and Rev. Bill Crosby.
Getting in Touch
The church is located at 101 N. Perrin at Palmetto in Plain Dealing, Louisiana, and can be reached by phone at 318-326-4221 or by email at pdbcla.office@gmail.com. The mailing address is P.O. Box 543, Plain Dealing, LA 71064. A weekly calendar of events is published online, and the church maintains an active presence on Facebook under the name Plain Dealing Baptist Church.