On Davenport Road in Dallas, Preston Highlands Baptist Church is known for a simple Sunday rhythm and a clear Gospel focus: Training Class at 9:00 a.m., worship at 10:30 a.m., and a stated mission to pursue the glory of God through Christ-centered worship, biblical community, and disciple-making among all nations. The welcome is intentionally broad. Visitors are told not to worry about what they are wearing, where they are from, what their first language is, or what they do not know. Behind that warmth is a congregation committed to biblical authority, serious worship, and the formation of disciples.
The church at 17463 Davenport Road in Dallas, Texas 75252, also carries a long local memory. Its story began in 1890 when Renner farmers organized Renner Baptist Church in the second floor of a schoolhouse used as a community center. A Sunday morning class, a congregation that sings both old and new songs, classes for children from six months to seven years, and preaching centered on the grace of God have all grown out of that beginning.
Sunday on Davenport Road
The congregation's Sunday pattern begins with Training Class at 9:00 a.m. The class is followed by the Sunday Morning Service at 10:30 a.m., described as the church's main gathering. The order of worship gives a first-time visitor a clear picture of what to expect: the congregation sings songs, both old and new; reads Scripture; hears God's word preached; prays together; and celebrates Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Those gatherings are meant to be taken seriously without becoming intimidating. The church describes its worship as accessible to everyone and has built a specific welcome around common uncertainties. Clothing is not a test, nor is background or theological vocabulary. A visitor can arrive as a first-time worshipper without needing polished answers. The same spirit shapes the preaching, which often explores Scripture in depth while seeking to help ordinary people understand how the text bears on life.
A Sunday service stream is available through the church's YouTube livestream. For those who want the sermon rather than the live gathering, the sermon audio collection includes messages that can be played in the browser or downloaded.
Children at Both Sunday Gatherings
Children are included in the rhythm of the Sunday morning rather than treated as an afterthought. Classes are provided for children six months through seven years old during both the 9:00 a.m. Training Class and the 10:30 a.m. Worship Hour. The stated purpose is to engage children with Bible stories and focus their attention on the story of redemption through Jesus as king.
PHBC takes the responsibility of teaching, loving, and caring for the children in its care seriously. Its child protection policy requires that teachers and workers be screened before serving. As a result, a family arriving early for Training Class or arriving for worship has a defined place for children from infancy through the early elementary years.
From the Renner Schoolhouse to Davenport Road
A congregation organized for farm families
Preston Highlands Baptist Church was originally Renner Baptist Church. It was organized at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 6, 1890, in the Renner School House. The second floor served both as a schoolhouse and as a community center. Renner, established in 1888, was the focal point for an area of farm homes in the southwest corner of Collin County. The church began because those farmers wanted a place of worship in their own community.
For eight years the congregation continued to meet on that second floor. The schoolhouse itself now stands at Heritage Park in Dallas. The young church's history was therefore rooted not in a purpose-built sanctuary but in the ordinary center of community life.
A church building at Dickerson Street
By 1896, a five-member building committee had canvassed the community in a one-seated buggy. The members collected pledges and cash totaling $1,023.75. In 1897 the congregation bought a lot at 17720 Dickerson Street. Its cornerstone was laid with ceremonies on October 6, 1897, and the new church was dedicated on January 9, 1898. That building now stands at Farmers Branch Historical Park.
In 1925, the congregation built a new structure on the Dickerson Street lot. George W. Truett, then pastor of First Baptist Church Dallas, performed the dedication service. His participation became part of the church's history, and the 1925 building still stands on the same lot.
The move that created Preston Highlands
To better serve a changing community, the congregation purchased the property at the corner of Davenport Road and McCallum in December 1979 and moved its place of worship there. In April 1980, Renner Baptist Church became Preston Highlands Baptist Church. Its first building at the new location was dedicated on October 12, 1980.
The move created the church's Dallas identity without severing its story. The name changed in 1980, but the church's emphasis on gathered worship, biblical instruction, congregational life, and service to its community continued from the Renner schoolhouse gathering. What began as eight years in a community schoolroom became a long lineage of worship in the same southwest Collin County area.
Evangelical, Reformed, and Baptist
Preston Highlands describes its beliefs in three connected words. Each has a specific meaning for the congregation and shapes how it reads Scripture, structures the church, and understands the church's place among other Christians.
Evangelical: Scripture and the gospel of salvation
The first distinctive is Evangelical. PHBC believes that the Bible is the inerrant and infallible Word of God and therefore its final authority in all matters of life and doctrine. It also teaches that all people are born in sin and that a person's only hope of salvation is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The church's explanation of Christianity centers on a decision about Jesus: either believing what the Bible says about him and placing faith in him, or rejecting him and the forgiveness and life he offers.
Reformed: Scripture, grace, and God's sovereignty
The second distinctive is Reformed. The church embraces the Five Solas of the Reformation:
- Scripture alone is its final authority.
- Salvation is by grace alone.
- It comes through faith alone.
- It is found in Christ alone.
- Its aim is the glory of God alone.
PHBC also affirms the sovereignty of God over all things, including the personal salvation of sinners. The congregation places Scripture at the center of its authority and God's sovereignty at the center of its understanding of salvation.
Baptist: immersion and congregational authority
The third distinctive is Baptist. The church understands itself as a body of regenerate, baptized believers. Baptism is the immersion in water of people who have repented of sin and trusted in Christ alone for salvation. Its polity is congregational: the final authority rests with the congregation itself, under the authority of Christ. The church is voluntarily affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
These commitments are summarized in the church's Statement of Faith, which the church describes as a summary of what the Bible teaches about foundational Christian doctrines. The Church Covenant has a different purpose. It is a set of promises members make to one another, describing what they will do as members of the same body. The Constitution and Bylaws supply the procedures that help the congregation function well, including how leaders are elected, how people are added or removed as members, and how the church orders itself to glorify God and encourage one another.
Doctrine, covenant, and congregational practice thus fit together at PHBC. What the church believes is anchored in Scripture; what members promise to one another is lived in community; and the congregation retains the final authority under Christ.
Training, Community Groups, and the Work of Discipleship
Discipleship at Preston Highlands is not confined to a single program. It appears in the 9:00 a.m. Training Class, the Sunday gathering, the regular rhythm of community life, and the church's stated goal of pursuing the glory of God among all nations. The emphasis is theological and practical: God's people are to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, learn to worship him, and become participants in his mission.
Beyond the main Sunday service, the church's Community Group meets every other Sunday in the evening. This small-group setting gives the congregation another rhythm for Scripture study, conversation, and shared life. The group is connected to Pastor John Sypert, who also leads the church's teaching ministry.
The Women's Ministry seeks to reach, inspire, and encourage women of all walks of life to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Its Bible studies, opportunities to serve, and events are designed for that goal. The aim is connection first to Jesus and then to one another, with the hope that the church's journey together will be encouraging and life-giving. A Men's Ministry is also named as part of the church's congregational life.
For people who want to continue hearing biblical teaching outside the Sunday morning rhythm, the church offers Wednesdays in the Word through Anchor.fm. Its sermon resources, Bible teaching, newsletter articles, and podcast distribution make the church's teaching available for regular personal listening and family Bible reading.
That wider ministry reaches beyond the room on Davenport Road. The church's mission phrase speaks of disciple-making among all nations, and its teaching carries a consistent burden for people who have not yet heard the gospel, for the poor, for missionaries, and for the Jewish people among its neighbors. The recurring concern is not merely attendance but formation: becoming people whose faith reaches into worship, family life, work, generosity, prayer, and the pursuit of a lost world for Christ.
A Gospel That Reaches Lostness, Wealth, Marriage, and Death
Pastor John Sypert has shaped the church's pulpit voice since 2014. Raised in rural East Texas, he studied at East Texas Baptist University, received an M.Div. and Th.M. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and earned a Ph.D. in Theology and Apologetics from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. His teaching is marked by close attention to the biblical text, sustained exposition, and pastoral concern for the life of faith in the congregation.
The gospel at the center
The recurring center is the gospel. In the church's teaching, the Bible's overarching story begins with the holy Creator, who made humanity as image-bearers with inherent dignity and value. People fell into sin, preferring their own rule and worship to God's. In Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, God provided the remedy: Jesus lived the life humanity should have lived, died as the substitute for sinners, bore the judgment they deserved, and rose from the dead. Those who turn from sin and trust Christ are forgiven, adopted into God's family, given his Spirit, and assured of a place in his everlasting kingdom. The gospel is therefore not a rescue from religion but God's saving work in Christ for sinners.
The lost and the limits of self-righteousness
Some of the most memorable subjects are the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the two sons in Luke 15. PHBC's teaching presents God as a seeking God who does not wait for people to tidy themselves up before he comes. The shepherd goes after the sheep, the woman searches for the coin, and the father runs to meet the younger son. The church draws out the implication for community: God's people should love the lost, receive sinners with grace, and speak the truth in love.
The older son is just as important to the message. Jesus refuses to divide humanity into moral insiders and immoral outsiders. The younger brother rebels by breaking rules, while the older brother rebels by treating rule keeping as a way to control God and earn his Father's approval. Both are lost, both are loved, and both reveal the heart of self-centeredness. The gospel's answer is the True Older Brother, Jesus, who leaves heaven, pays the cost of redemption, and brings his people home.
Generosity, wealth, and the poor
The pulpit also confronts wealth, generosity, and the poor. The teaching does not condemn wealth as such. Abraham, Job, and Lydia are remembered as wealthy people who trusted God. The warning is sharper: wealth can become a snare, and a person who ignores the poor at the gate reveals a heart divided from God. The rich man and Lazarus are presented as a summons to see people in need as brothers and sisters, not disposable strangers. Generosity is described as evidence of faith and the opening of the hand that grace has already reached.
Pastor Sypert has taught that believers should give at least ten percent of their income through their local church and, as able, give more to people in need. Giving is available through the church's online giving service. This emphasis fits the church's wider conviction that the gospel reaches into public life as well as the heart. The church also holds up a free market economy, representative government, and religious liberty as good parts of its teaching about American life, while placing the kingdom of Christ above any national ambition.
Covenant, conscience, and care
Marriage and remarriage receive careful, Scripture-centered attention. The church teaches that marriage is a lifelong covenant between a man and a woman that displays Christ's covenant love for his church. Pastor Sypert explains that the vows, rather than sexual union, constitute marriage, and that the covenant cannot be treated lightly. He argues that biblical exceptions allow for divorce in cases such as adultery or abandonment, but that remarriage while a spouse is still living is not permitted; after a spouse's death, a person is free to remarry.
That teaching is joined by a strong ethic of care. People affected by adultery, divorce, or remarriage are to receive love, support, prayer, and encouragement rather than shame. Professional counseling and the community of the church are presented as helps for people in hard seasons. The pastor also plainly says that abuse is not a command to remain in danger and that separation may be necessary for safety.
Death, resurrection, and enduring hope
The church's hope for the dead is resurrection. Its teaching says that when a believer dies, the spirit goes to be with Jesus, while the body waits for resurrection. The final hope is not an indefinite disembodied existence but Christ returning, the dead being raised, and believers receiving new bodies conformed to Christ. This hope shapes grief without minimizing it. Pastor John's writing on death speaks from personal loss and directs comfort toward the promised renewal of the whole person.
Prayer, Perseverance, and the Long Run
The church treats prayer as a vital part of Christian life rather than a private add-on. In teaching on prayer, Pastor Sypert defines it as communication with the God who has revealed himself in Scripture. Prayer begins with what God has already made known and moves from there into confession, petition, worship, and dependence. The aim is not to impress God but to align the heart with his will and to bring life into the light of what he has said.
A related emphasis is perseverance. The church has called growth in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ its continuing goal, asking that the congregation not give up on going deep with Jesus. Its teaching acknowledges that the Christian life alternates between peaks and valleys. There are stretches of closeness and joy, and stretches marked by dryness, discouragement, or unanswered questions. The response is not to pretend every season is easy, but to keep walking, trust Christ's promise that he is present in the valley, and continue growing.
The church's teaching also takes spiritual conflict seriously. It describes the devil as an active accuser and deceiver whose schemes seek to paralyze people with shame and false promises of autonomy. The answer is the cross and resurrection: Jesus disarmed the powers of evil, broke the power of death, and opened a way for his people to live in freedom rather than under the devil's accusations. This is part of the reason the church preaches so often about God's grace, the sufficiency of Christ, and the nearness of God in difficult seasons.
Long-term hope also shapes the church's outward concern. The gospel is to be proclaimed, the lost are to be sought, and believers are to bear fruit in faithful lives. PHBC has taught about the church's responsibility to share the good news, to pray for Jewish neighbors, to speak to unreached peoples, and to support those carrying the gospel cross-culturally. Missions and local love are not separate from worship at Preston Highlands. They are ways the church seeks to obey Christ in the whole of life and to keep the mission of Christ active in the world.
The Long Story Continues
Preston Highlands Baptist Church has moved once in its long history, but its central identity has remained stable: a congregation committed to the authority of Scripture, the grace of Christ, the centrality of the congregation, and the formation of disciples. Its long history is not simply a record of buildings. It is a story of ordinary people gathering in a schoolhouse, raising funds for a sanctuary, singing in a new place, teaching children, gathering in groups, and continuing to make the gospel known.
At 17463 Davenport Road, the Sunday pattern remains easy to understand: Training Class at 9:00 and worship at 10:30. Around that pattern are old and new songs, biblical teaching, prayer, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, screened children's workers, community groups, ministries for women and men, teaching resources for families, and a sustained emphasis on God's grace in the lives of people. Preston Highlands Baptist Church continues the work that began in the Renner schoolhouse by pursuing the glory of God through Christ-centered worship, biblical community, and disciple-making among all nations.