Thomas Road Baptist Church sits at 5735 West Thomas Road on the west side of Phoenix, in a neighborhood where English and Spanish share the streets and where a Baptist congregation has made it its business to meet people in both languages. Sunday mornings bring two back-to-back worship services in the same auditorium, a children's ministry from the nursery through sixth grade, and a steady stream of discipleship through small groups that meet in homes across the city. One Saturday a month from September through May, the parking lot becomes a free food market that draws neighbors from around the area. During the week, the church keeps an online prayer wall, a livestream on YouTube, a sermon archive, and a yearly Faith Promise giving campaign.
Two Languages, One Sunday Morning
The Sunday schedule at Thomas Road Baptist is built around the bilingual character of its neighborhood. English worship begins at 9:00 AM, and Spanish worship follows at 10:30 AM. Bible Fellowship Classes run alongside each service in the other language, so that Spanish-speaking families have a Bible study hour at 9:00 AM while the English service is underway, and English-speaking families have one at 10:30 AM while the Spanish service is underway.
Each service includes music, Bible reading, a sermon, and time before and after to greet the people in the pews around you. Services last about an hour. The pastor teaches a lesson from the Bible each week; in 2026 he is preaching through the gospel of Luke in a series called Luke: The Perfect Son of Man. Members and regular attenders can follow along with a printed Worship Guide, available in both English and Spanish, that mirrors the sermon outline with fill-in-the-blank points and a closing Life-Change Question.
A First-Time Visit on Thomas Road
The church addresses the questions that first-time guests actually ask. The pastor usually wears a suit and tie, but some people get a little dressed up and some do not. The focus is on what God is doing in the hearts of people who come: basically what's on the inside, not on the kind of clothes you wear on the outside.
Ushers stand at the entrance of the main auditorium and can point new families toward the children's areas. A nursery is open for newborns through age three during both the 9:00 AM English service and the 10:30 AM Spanish service. Sunday School for children age three through sixth grade runs during the same hours. Children are welcome to stay with their parents in the auditorium if that is the family's preference.
Anyone with a prayer need can ask a member of the staff or a volunteer to pray with them on the spot. The phone line at the church office, (623) 247-5735, is open during the week for questions. Worship is livestreamed on YouTube for those who are traveling, sick at home, or simply want to follow along.
A Place for Every Child
Thomas Road Baptist takes the work of forming children in the faith seriously enough to run three distinct programs on Sunday morning. Children are a precious blessing from God, and the stated goal of the children's ministry is to honor and nurture that gift by supporting families from the newborn stage through sixth grade.
The nursery, for newborns through age three, is staffed during both the 9:00 AM and 10:30 AM services. The rooms are set up with age-appropriate toys and supplies. Preschoolers, ages three through five, gather during both services for Bible stories, music, activities, and crafts. Each week preschoolers go home with a take-home resource so the lesson can be reviewed with their parents during the week.
Kid's Church, for kindergarten through sixth grade, also meets during both the 9:00 AM and 10:30 AM services. Children in this group walk through the Bible together with lessons, music, memory verses, and activities led by engaging teachers who love God and love the children in their care. The children's ministry as a whole serves children ages five through twelve across the week, not only on Sunday mornings.
A Doctrinal Statement with Seventeen Articles
Thomas Road Baptist Church holds to a detailed doctrinal statement with seventeen articles, a confession in the historic Baptist tradition that reflects fundamentalist convictions on Scripture, separatist convictions on the local church, and a clear dispensational eschatology.
On Scripture, the church teaches that the Bible, sixty-six books in the Old and New Testaments, is without error in its original writing, that its author was God working through Spirit-guided men, that it is verbally and plenarily inspired, and that it is the sole authority for faith and practice.
On God, the church holds to one living and true God, infinite, eternal, and self-existing, with three persons in one Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in essence and in perfection but distinct in work. Creation is taken literally: the six days of Genesis chapter one are twenty-four-hour days; all plant and animal life brings forth only after its kind; and human beings were made directly in God's image and after His likeness, not evolved from any lower form of life.
Salvation is by grace alone, made possible by the substitutionary death of the Son of God. Christ, though eternally God, was born of the virgin Mary, lived a perfect sinless life, shed His blood on the cross, arose bodily from the grave, and ascended to reign. Justification is by penitent and obedient faith. True believers are regenerated, given spiritual life, and will persevere to the end.
Sanctification is taught in three phases: believers have been made partakers of Christ's holiness, are being progressively sanctified, and will be completely sanctified at His glorification. Speaking in tongues is rejected as a sign of either regeneration or sanctification, and the New Testament gift of tongues is taught to have ceased.
The ordinances are believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper, both described as memorial, symbol, and prophecy. Baptism is a prerequisite to church membership and to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Day is the first day of the week, kept sacred to spiritual purposes. Civil government is of divine appointment, but church and state should be separate; a free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.
On future events, the statement is explicitly pre-tribulational and premillennial. The blessed hope of the believer is the imminent, personal, pre-tribulational, premillennial appearance of Christ to rapture the church, His bride. After the tribulation, Christ will return physically to introduce David's kingdom; Israel will be saved and restored as a nation; Satan will be bound and the curse lifted from creation. After the millennium, the Great White Throne judgment will reunite the bodies and souls of the wicked and cast them into the Lake of Fire.
On heresy and apostasy, the statement calls for total and complete separation from all forms of heresy and ecclesiastical apostasy, with a nine-step list of biblical responses: try them, mark them, rebuke them, have no fellowship, withdraw ourselves, receive them not, have no company with him, reject them, and separate ourselves.
Preaching Through Luke: The Perfect Son of Man
Daniel Dennis is the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church. He preaches most Sundays in English, and the Spanish services follow a parallel outline, Lucas: El Hijo del Hombre Perfecto, so both congregations move through the same gospel at the same pace in their own language.
The current series, Luke: The Perfect Son of Man, walks through the gospel of Luke verse by verse. Recent and upcoming sermons in the series include Who is My Neighbor? (Luke 10:25-37), The Harvest Can't Wait (Luke 10:1-11), The One Thing (Luke 10:38-42), Bold Prayers to a Generous Father (Luke 11:1-13), The Verdict of the Nations (Luke 11:29-36), The Dirty Cup (Luke 11:37-44), The Stolen Key (Luke 11:45-54), The Mask Comes Off (Luke 12:1-12), and This Night (Luke 12:13-21). The Spanish services follow the same titles in translation, with the same outline blanks to fill in during the sermon.
Sermon notes are written as fill-in-the-blank study guides, with one main idea per point and a Life-Change Question at the end that invites a personal response. Each sermon is recorded and posted to the church's Facebook and YouTube pages, where past sermons remain available through a sermon archive. Guest preachers, including Rick Seltzer and Manuel Gonzales, fill in from time to time, but Pastor Dennis carries the bulk of the pulpit ministry.
Teens, Young Families, and Life Groups
Beyond the Sunday gatherings, Thomas Road Baptist organizes its members and regular attenders into three overlapping ministry groups.
The teen ministry, for seventh through twelfth graders, gathers weekly under youth leaders the church describes as passionate and energetic. Through regular meetings, activities, music, and service opportunities, teens study and apply God's Word together, build friendships with one another, and learn to trust God in the middle of life's challenges.
Young Families is the ministry for adults eighteen and up, with a focus on going deeper into the Bible and discussing how to faithfully serve others through sharing the gospel. The group functions as a community of people walking through life together and supporting one another through whatever season they happen to be in.
Life Groups are the church's small-group ministry. Leaders open up their homes and invite neighbors to share the gospel and study God's Word together. The tagline for the ministry is: life is better when we do it together. People in any season of life can join a Life Group by visiting in person or by calling the church office to be matched with one.
A Free Food Market Every Third Saturday
Once a month from September through May, the parking lot at 5735 West Thomas Road turns into a community food distribution. The Free Food Market runs every third Saturday of the month, with food handed out starting at 9:00 AM.
Members of the church and other volunteers arrive at 7:30 AM to help set up and distribute. The church invites anyone who wants to serve to come early and join the work, and to come back monthly. For neighbors in the surrounding area, the market is a way to put groceries on the table one Saturday a month during the cooler months, when food insecurity in Phoenix households can be at its sharpest.
An Online Prayer Wall, a Sermon Archive, and a Livestream
Thomas Road Baptist runs a small but real set of online resources built around prayer, sermons, and the livestream.
The Prayer Wall is open to anyone, member or not. Visitors can share their name, email, phone number, and prayer request, and choose whether to share it publicly, share it anonymously, or not share it at all. Submissions can also be flagged to receive an email when someone has prayed for the request. A running tally under each entry counts how many people have clicked I prayed for this. Recent requests have included prayers for the salvation of family members, healing from cancer and other illnesses, recovery from surgeries, restoration from addiction, reconciliation in marriages, financial breakthrough, and protection from harm. A few entries, including one from the pastor himself, report answered prayer with thanks.
Services are livestreamed on YouTube each Sunday morning at 9:00 AM for English and 10:30 AM for Spanish. Missed services can be caught up through the sermon archive, and recent sermons are also available on the church's Facebook page. Members and regular attenders have access to a private Facebook group called TRBC Connection for church-wide announcements and special events.
Members can also sign in to the church's Breeze church management system to update their profile and view their own giving information. The church calendar, including upcoming services and events, is published in Breeze and shared as a Google calendar available from the church.
Tithes, Faith Promise, and Text Giving
The church teaches tithing, the practice of giving one tenth of income to the Lord through the local church, as the biblical baseline for Christian giving. Offerings above the tithe are given as God has prospered the individual. The doctrinal article on the Grace of Giving ties the practice directly to the work of spreading the gospel, caring for the churches, and supporting the ministry.
Giving can be done online through the Breeze / Tithely platform, by texting an amount to 623-777-2220 and following the prompts, or in person during services. Each year the church runs a Faith Promise giving campaign, with sign-up forms available in both English and Spanish. Members can also give toward special projects through the same platform.
A Sending Church on West Thomas Road
The doctrinal statement on Missions and Missionaries teaches that the command to go and preach the gospel to the world is clean and unmistakable, and that this commission was given to the churches. Following New Testament precedent, the church believes that missionary endeavors should be under the ultimate sponsorship of the local congregation, which may use the services of mission boards but should not hand them authority over the church.
In practice, that looks like a steady stream of prayers for missionaries on the prayer wall, including requests for friends in Lebanon building businesses to support Bible schools and missionaries, prayers for the spread of the gospel in other countries, and prayer cards for evangelists and Bible club workers, paired with the practical ministries already in place in Phoenix: the food market, the children's ministry, the youth group, and the small groups meeting in homes around the city.
Thomas Road Baptist Church sits on West Thomas Road in a part of Phoenix where English and Spanish share the streets. On Sunday mornings, both languages share the same pulpit. On Saturday mornings, every third Saturday from September through May, neighbors share a parking lot full of food. During the week, members share their homes for Bible study and their screens for prayer. The church calls itself a place where life is better when we do it together.