Ridgeway Baptist Church has met at 2500 Ridgeway Road in east Memphis since 1873, when a small group of people in the Memphis area organized what would grow into a multigenerational congregation serving the Ridgeway community and the broader city. Today the church runs a full week of programming for every stage of life, anchored by Sunday worship and small groups. Worshippers gather at 10:15 a.m. for a blended service that pairs choir, organ, piano, drums, and guitars with both traditional hymns and newer worship songs.
The Three Priorities That Shape Ridgeway
The church's motto, "Know Jesus Personally. Worship Jesus Passionately. Serve Jesus Purposefully.," frames the three priorities that organize everything from Sunday Bible study to international missions. The first priority drives the church's invitation and discipleship pathway. The second undergirds the music and worship ministry. The third sends members out into Memphis and the world, with each ministry at Ridgeway meant to fit somewhere under those three headings.
Sundays at Ridgeway: Life Groups and Worship
Sunday at Ridgeway begins early with fellowship and small-group Bible study. Life Groups for every age meet at 9:00 a.m. Adults study together while children join Preschool (infants through Pre-K) or RidgeKids (grades 1-5) and students gather in their own classes. Most student groups are divided by gender and age, while the college-age group is co-ed.
At 10:15 a.m. the whole church moves into the Worship Service. Pastor Mark LaRue typically preaches through book-by-book series of Scripture, working passage by passage through the books being taught. Recent series have included a walk through Joshua titled "Courageous Faith," a study of the letter of James called "Living Between Sundays," a series through 1 John titled "Truth and Love," and a study of Ephesians titled "So Much More." Music is led by the choir, praise team, praise band, and orchestra, with audio and video teams supporting the service behind the scenes. Messages are archived online and the service is livestreamed on the church's Facebook page at 10:15 a.m.
Children's Church for grades 1-5 meets during the 10:15 service in room 115 with singing, prayer, object lessons, and activities. Childcare for infants through age 3 is provided in rooms 119 and 120 each Sunday morning so parents can drop off young children and join a Life Group of their own.
Wednesday Evenings: A Meal, Discipleship, and Choir
Wednesday nights at Ridgeway are a full evening. Members and visitors are invited to arrive at 5:00 p.m. for a Fellowship Meal in the Fellowship Hall. After the meal, adult Discipleship classes begin at 6:00 p.m., and the Worship Choir rehearses at 7:00 p.m. The Choir also meets on Sundays at 9:55 a.m. to prepare for that morning's service.
Children in grades 1-5 are invited to TeamKid at 6:00 p.m., a high-energy hour in the Christian Life Center Snack Room that helps them know Jesus and grow in their relationship with Him. Four-year-olds through kindergartners gather in room 120, while childcare for infants through age 3 continues in rooms 119 and 120. The student ministry's Wednesday gathering, called SNL (Salt and Light), meets at 6:00 p.m. in the Youth Room at the back of the Christian Life Center. Students open the Bible, worship, and play games together in a setting designed for middle and high schoolers.
Children's Ministry: Birth Through Fifth Grade
Ridgeway's Children's Ministry is structured by age and meets kids wherever they are. Preschool care (Birth through Pre-K) is offered during both the 9:00 a.m. Life Groups and the 10:15 a.m. Worship Celebration. Parents check in at the Children's Welcome Center each Sunday to find the right class for their child.
RidgeKids, the ministry for grades 1-5, encourages children and their families to know Jesus and to serve Him with purpose through Bible Study, camps, special events, and Vacation Bible School throughout the year. Sunday morning Bible Study at 9:00 a.m. is followed by Children's Church at 10:15 in room 115. The combination means that even small children hear the gospel each Sunday in age-appropriate ways, while older kids are introduced to corporate worship as they grow.
Student Ministry: Grades 6 Through College
Ridgeway Students is the church's ministry for grades 6 through 12. On Sunday mornings at 9:00 the students gather for fellowship and donuts before breaking into Life Groups, most of which are divided by gender and age. On Wednesday nights at 6:00 p.m., the group meets at SNL (Salt and Light) in the Youth Room at the back of the Christian Life Center, where students dive into God's Word, worship, and have a lot of fun doing it.
The Student Ministry takes seriously the call to share the gospel with the world. The student ministry's Missions focus challenges and equips students to share their faith and gives them practical opportunities to fulfill the Great Commission, in Memphis, across the country, and overseas. College students at Ridgeway have their own co-ed Life Group on Sunday mornings, and they are also part of a College and Young Single Adults Ministry that engages Memphis-area college students through weekly worship, D-Groups, and special events.
Adult Discipleship: Life Groups, D-Groups, Community Groups
Adults at Ridgeway have several layers of community to choose from. The most consistent is the Sunday morning Life Group at 9:00 a.m., where adults can find a group that matches their life stage and study interests. These classes are designed for fellowship and to equip believers to grow toward spiritual maturity.
For deeper discipleship, D-Groups (Discipleship Groups) gather weekly in groups of two or three under a leader's care for a four-month season, with men discipling men and women discipling women. Each group decides its own time and meeting place, and the rhythm typically includes discussion of weekly Bible reading, Scripture memory, prayer, and accountability. D-Groups run in the Spring (February through May) and the Fall (August through November), and each participant is encouraged to become a D-Group Leader for multiplication.
Community Groups add a third layer, meeting once a month for three months at host homes throughout the Greater Memphis area. These groups are designed to foster multi-generational and multi-cultural fellowship, connect people to Ridgeway, and encourage spiritual conversation. They run in the Spring and the Fall.
Ministries for Every Stage: Women, Men, Young Marrieds, Senior Adults
Beyond the D-Group and Community Group rhythms, Ridgeway supports ministries aimed at particular life stages. The Women's Ministry equips women of all ages to grow toward spiritual maturity and build authentic relationships through Bible studies, connection events, worship opportunities, and service projects. The Men's Ministry offers men a place to grow in their faith and connect with other men through Bible studies, special events, and ministry opportunities; a Men's Ministry Prayer Breakfast gathers men, their sons, grandsons, friends, and neighbors at 7:00 a.m. on the first Saturday of every month in the Fellowship Hall.
Young married adults find a ministry designed for the formative years of marriage, with special events, Bible studies, and service projects throughout the year. Senior Adults (ages 55 and up) meet monthly for connection and relationship-building, with special events scheduled throughout the year. Together, these ministries give every adult a path into community at Ridgeway.
A Blended Music Ministry
Music at Ridgeway is intentionally blended and led primarily from within the gathered congregation. The Music Ministry describes its purpose as bringing glory to Jesus Christ by singing praise in "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs," accompanied by piano, organ, drums, and guitars with choir-led worship. The team majors on substance rather than style, lifting up Jesus and making the gospel message clear to every generation.
The Music Ministry is made up of several groups. The Worship Choir leads the congregation on Sunday mornings and rehearses Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. and Sundays at 9:55 a.m. The Praise Team, drawn from the choir, sings at the front during congregational worship and meets Wednesdays at 5:15 p.m. and Sundays at 8:30 a.m. The Praise Band and Orchestra, a dedicated group of instrumentalists, meet at the same times. Soloists and ensembles are drawn from among choir and band members, and an Audio, Video, and Media team handles the technical side of worship.
Pastoral Care, Biblical Counseling, and Prayer
Ridgeway's pastoral staff is committed to shepherding the church well. The Pastoral Care and Biblical Guidance ministry exists to visit and pray with those in need of pastoral care, and the church provides free short-term biblical counseling for individuals and families. The staff members - Mark LaRue, Rusty Eason, Randy Chapman, Cade Locklear, and David Love - can each be reached directly through the staff listing.
Prayer is treated as central to the church's life. The Prayer Ministry uses a text-based prayer group for requests and praise reports and hosts a 24 Pray Event, one day each week for 24 hours during the Spring and the Fall. Anyone can submit a prayer request through the church's Prayer Request page, choosing whether to share the request with the Prayer Ministry team or keep it for the pastoral staff only.
Missions in Memphis, the Region, and the World
Ridgeway takes seriously the call to serve Jesus in the church, in Memphis, and in the world, and that mission is expressed through three partnerships.
Locally, Ridgeway partners with ministries and organizations in the Ridgeway community and the Greater Memphis area to share the gospel with the city, and hosts community outreach events for the surrounding neighborhood. The church partners with the Mid-South Baptist Association through budgeted giving. Regionally, Ridgeway enters three-year partnerships with church plants in the United States, sending a team once a year to help with outreach events, Vacation Bible School, community surveys, and more. Giving flows through the Tennessee Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board. Globally, the church partners with an international work for three-year cycles, sending a team to help with needs on the international field, and supports the Southern Baptist Convention and the International Mission Board through the Annual Missions Offering.
GriefShare and Drive-Through Prayer
Beyond the regular missions partnerships, Ridgeway runs two named ministries that touch the surrounding community directly. GriefShare meets on Sundays from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. A GriefShare support group is a safe, welcoming place where people understand the difficult emotions of grief, and anyone is encouraged to join on any week because sessions are self-contained, so newcomers don't have to catch up.
Drive-Through Prayer is another touchpoint: on designated Wednesdays the church pauses its regular Wednesday rhythm (no meal, no other activities) and opens the campus to the surrounding neighborhood for a ministry of prayer. Volunteers pray, direct traffic, and help keep workers hydrated as cars pull through. The church describes the night as an opportunity to serve those around us.
What Ridgeway Believes
Ridgeway Baptist Church affiliates with the Southern Baptist Convention and affirms the Baptist Faith and Message. The church confesses one God in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and holds that the Holy Bible is the divinely inspired, fully trustworthy revelation of God. In the words of the church's statement of faith, "all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy," the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.
Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The church describes salvation in four movements: regeneration (the new birth, a work of God's grace in which the sinner repents and trusts in Christ); justification (God's full acquittal of all sinners who repent and believe); sanctification (the Spirit's progressive work of setting believers apart for God's purposes); and glorification (the final blessed state of the redeemed). Christian baptism, the church teaches, is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior.
The church understands itself as "an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel" and governed under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. Pastors and deacons are the scriptural officers, and the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. The Lord's Supper is observed on the last Sunday of March, June, September, and December.
The church looks forward to the personal, visible return of Jesus Christ in glory, the resurrection of the dead, and final judgment, with the unrighteous consigned to Hell and the righteous dwelling forever with the Lord in Heaven.
The Pastoral Staff
Mark LaRue is the Senior Pastor with over thirty-four years of ministry experience. He is a graduate of Crichton College, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Master's Divinity School in Evansville, Indiana. He and his wife Kimsey were married in August 1990; they have three sons and four living grandchildren.
Rusty Eason has served the Lord in music ministry since 1975 and joined Ridgeway as part-time Minister of Music in August 2021. Randy Chapman has served as Children's and Recreation Pastor since June 2004 after twenty-two years at FedEx. Cade Locklear serves as Student Pastor and attends Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. David Love leads the Senior Adults Ministry.
Visiting Ridgeway
Ridgeway Baptist Church meets at 2500 Ridgeway Road, Memphis, TN 38119, on the east side of the city. Sunday Life Groups for all ages begin at 9:00 a.m., the Worship Service begins at 10:15 a.m., and GriefShare meets at 2:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Wednesday nights include a Fellowship Meal at 5:00 p.m., adult Discipleship classes, TeamKid for grades 1-5, SNL for students, and Choir Rehearsal at 7:00 p.m. The service is livestreamed at 10:15 a.m. on the church's Facebook page, and a sermon archive is available online. Giving is accepted online through Shelby Giving, and the church can be reached at (901) 761-1110 or info@ridgewaybaptist.org.