Warlicks Baptist Church stands on Warlicks Church Road in Connelly Springs, where a Southern Baptist congregation has met since 1815. It is known for deep Baptist roots, Bible-centered worship, a strong emphasis on family and students, and practical service that includes supplying weekend food to children and building home ramps for people who cannot easily leave their homes. Its mission is to see its world changed by the gospel one life at a time, forming people who know Jesus, become more like Jesus, and lead others to follow him.
1815: Three Buildings and Twenty-Seven Pastors
The body of Warlicks Baptist Church has been meeting since 1815. Across that history, the congregation has used three different buildings and counted 27 pastors. The church preserves a written history intended for generations to come, allowing the congregation to remember and tell the story of those who carried the work before it. That long arc gives the present-day church a sense of continuity: it is a congregation sustained across more than two centuries.
Warlicks is part of the Catawba Valley Baptist Association. At the local level, Pastor Gary Murry serves as senior pastor, Associate Pastor John Jolly leads family and children's ministry, and Student Pastor Kyle Sacra leads the student ministry. Those roles place teaching, family life, and youth development alongside the church's desire to make disciples who can share their faith.
The church's mission is to see its world changed by the gospel one life at a time. It names Jesus as the center of that aim, with an expectation that people will know him, become more like him, and help others know and follow him. Warlicks also seeks a disciple-making culture that produces disciple-making churches. That purpose connects the church's long history to the practical work carried out by its families, students, seniors, men, and handymen.
A Sunday Built Around Prayer and Welcome
The Sunday gathering begins with open prayer from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m., followed by Sunday School from 9:00 to 9:50. Sunday Morning Worship begins at 10:00 a.m. and runs through 11:00. The worship service is designed around engaging music, applicable teaching from the Bible, prayer, and connection with community. Children can join Kidsized, a church program for children that runs alongside the adult service.
Warlicks prepares for first-time guests with a team of volunteers ready to answer questions, direct visitors to the right location, and help them become connected with the church. Visitors who arrive early can chat with the team, and those who arrive late will be given a seat. The church asks guests not to worry about clothing: business casual, jeans, or shorts are all comfortable choices.
The gatherings are conducted in English and take place at 2684 Warlicks Church Road in Connelly Springs. The weekly rhythm moves from open prayer to Sunday School and then worship, with dedicated teaching for children and adults and time built into the service for community.
Children, Students, and Fifth-Sunday Fun
Warlicks treats children as a central part of its family life. Kidsized runs with the adult worship gathering, while TeamKids is the Wednesday evening children's program. The church also keeps an annual rhythm of activities: a spring fling around Easter, a fall festival around Halloween, and a week of summer camp each year at South Mountain Baptist Camp. Vacation Bible School is another part of the children's ministry.
The student ministry aims to impact the kingdom through discipling and developing Christ-centered relationships. Sunday morning student leaders are Carl and Ashlei Lowman, while Lonny and Michelle Hildebran lead with students on Wednesday nights. Together they teach students through God's Word and seek to give them tools to learn more about Christ, become stronger disciples, and carry that faith into the world around them. Student Pastor Kyle Sacra has served in different youth roles for 25 years, beginning as a teenager when his father was a church planter. His focus is reaching young people with the Gospel, discipling them, and helping them become disciple-makers.
Family connections continue beyond the main Sunday gathering. A Family Fun Night falls on the fifth Sunday evening with food, fun, and games. John Jolly has worked in youth and children's ministry since 1989 and has served as the Family and Children's Pastor at Warlicks since 2005. The family ministry therefore includes worship, teaching, seasonal gatherings, camp, Vacation Bible School, and a recurring fifth-Sunday evening set aside for fun together.
Men at Dawn, Seniors in Fellowship, Music at the Heart
Men's Bible Study meets Monday morning from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. The early-hour gathering gives men a regular time for Bible study alongside the church's other weekly rhythms. Wednesday also includes Adult Bible Study at 6:30 p.m. and Youth Bible Study from 6:30 to 7:30, with TeamKids serving children during the Wednesday evening gathering.
The Senior Adult ministry seeks to glorify God by identifying, inviting, and involving senior adults, using their wisdom, gifts, and talents in fellowship and outreach. Its committee meets on the second Thursday of each month, and a monthly fellowship is held on the third Monday unless otherwise notified. The ministry organizes fellowship for older adults while allowing them to contribute their experience and abilities to the church's service.
Music has deep roots at Warlicks. One long-serving musician began serving the church in July 1984 and remains there. Another started as the church pianist in 1991 and was appointed Praise and Worship Leader in 2009. A third began playing piano around 1956 and later played organ for Sunday morning worship. Those histories reflect a music ministry built through years of regular participation, with a dedicated praise and worship leader and several long-serving instrumentalists contributing to Sunday worship.
The church's leaders bring distinct histories to their roles. Senior Pastor Gary Murry grew up in a Christian home and accepted God's gift of salvation at 28. John Jolly began in church ministry in 1989 and has worked with youth and children throughout his career. Student Pastor Kyle Sacra has served in different youth roles for 25 years. Their long tenures reinforce a church that sees ministry as a shared vocation across generations.
Backpacks, Decks, Ramps, and Christmas Outreach
The school backpack program began in 2013 after a senior project identified a local and national need for children who lacked dependable food once school meals ended and weekends and holidays began. The program now supplies nutritious, nonperishable, easy-to-prepare food through backpacks, helping children have enough to eat when they cannot depend on school meals. Generous donations fully support the effort.
Warlicks Handymen began with men active in Habitat and various Baptist mission projects and now operates with Foothills Service Project, a Burke County nonprofit. Led by Jim Adams, the group repairs or builds decks and ramps for people who would otherwise be confined to their homes. The practical goal is freedom and mobility, while the ministry describes the work as serving God by meeting a need directly. New participants are welcome to join the group.
Christmas missions extend that emphasis beyond the local area. Warlicks has participated in Operation Christmas Child for more than two decades, joining a ministry that sends shoe boxes with basic needs and the Gospel to children around the world. Its support for Appalachian Christmas Outreach centers on children in impoverished Appalachian coal-mining areas in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Children receive backpacks containing canned food, candy, toys, clothing, and an age-appropriate Bible before Christmas. The effort joins physical care with the church's desire to share Christian faith.
What Warlicks Affirms
As a cooperating Southern Baptist church, Warlicks affirms the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message and holds to several fundamental doctrines. It teaches that the Bible is divinely inspired, is God's revelation, and is wholly true and trustworthy, with Christ at its center. It affirms one living and true God, eternal and triune as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, and the Holy Spirit is fully divine, exalting Christ, convicting people of sin, and empowering believers and the church for worship, evangelism, and service.
The church also affirms human beings as the special creation of God in his image, male and female, and teaches that every person possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. Salvation is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. Warlicks describes Christian baptism as the immersion of a believer in water and the Lord's Supper as a symbolic act of obedience in which members remember the Redeemer's death and anticipate his return.
At its core, the church defines itself as an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel. It holds that the church should extend the Gospel to the ends of the earth, make disciples, and witness verbally and through a Christian lifestyle. The affirmation that God ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society also shapes its teaching: marriage is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and children are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.
Messages, Music, and Practical Support
Warlicks posts Sunday morning and Wednesday night services each week on its YouTube channel, along with devotionals from Pastor Gary Murry. The church also maintains youth-focused Facebook and Instagram accounts, while LinkedIn provides additional updates. A D-6 Family Ministry podcast focuses on Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and the instruction to teach God's commands diligently to children.
For listeners, Warlicks recommends WMIT for daily teaching, family topics, and music; Joy FM for Southern Gospel; K-Love for contemporary Christian music; and American Family Radio for broadcasts that inform, equip, and activate individuals and families for the Great Commission. Together, the options cover daily instruction, family concerns, traditional Southern Gospel, and contemporary Christian music.
Tithes and offerings can be given through the church's online giving. The church's practical support remains close at hand through its backpack, handyman, senior-adult, student, family, and mission ministries. Warlicks Baptist Church's story stretches from 1815 into a present marked by Bible teaching, congregational worship, intergenerational service, and practical care for families and neighbors.