WHAT WE OFFER

Spiritual growth is important to us. Every believer needs to mature in their faith. We encourage members to spend time in three areas to promote spiritual growth:

• Time alone with God each day (prayer, Bible study, private worship)

• Time with other believers each week (worship, service, fellowship, Bible study, prayer)

• Time in ministry to others (sharing, serving, missions, evangelism)

Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church offers the following opportunities to help facilitate personal spiritual growth:

Assembly and Morning Coffee – We gather in the fellowship hall each Sunday morning at 9:15am for coffee, fellowship, and prayer before heading to Sunday School.

Sunday School – Some churches call it small groups, life groups, or cell groups. We still call it Sunday School. These small groups (we call them Sunday School classes), meet each Sunday morning at 9:30am. Our Sunday School has three primary goals:

• Transform lives through Bible study

• Build a caring community of friends

• Reach out to others through ministry and missions

Our philosophy of Sunday School is based on the instructions concerning sound teaching in the church that Paul presented to Titus in Titus 2:1-8:

1But you are to proclaim things consistent with sound teaching. 2Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. 3In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, 4so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, 5to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered. 6In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled 7in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. 8Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us.”  (Titus 2:1-8 CSB)

While most churches segregate their Sunday School classes by age, Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church does not. The instruction Paul gave to Titus clearly illustrates that the older men and women of the church are to teach the younger men and women of the church and serve as an example to them. How is that supposed to happen if everybody is divided into separate groups according to age and the only time everyone is together is in worship service? 

At Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church, we offer a children’s class, men’s classes, women’s classes, and co-ed adult classes. Other than the children’s class, none of our Sunday School classes are age graded. This allows us to follow the example of teaching in Titus 2. Once a child reaches middle school, he or she will choose an adult class to attend. That way, as they transition from adolescence into adulthood, they can learn from the experience and example of multiple generations of godly men and women.

In many churches, Sunday School classes are comprised of people sitting around a classroom taking turns reading from a Sunday School book. You won’t find that here. Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church is blessed to have excellent teachers who study all week to prepare lessons they actually teach on Sunday. Students in each class are not given a Sunday School book. They are presented with the lesson title and scripture for the coming week and study directly from the Bible. Additional Bible study materials, helps, and commentaries are available in our church library for those who seek deeper personal study. People can read Sunday School books at home. The purpose of our Sunday School is to provide a meaningful learning experience where students can study God’s Word under a thoroughly prepared teacher, enhanced by class discussions and personal insights.

We know we do things differently here. But we do things the way we do because we want to make a real difference in people’s lives. We want Sunday School to be something that changes us, not just something we participate in out of habit or obligation. We sincerely believe that being with other believers makes us stronger and we grow better together.

Sunday Morning Worship Service – Our Sunday Morning Worship Service meets in the sanctuary at 10:45am each and every Sunday. This is our main weekly worship service where we sing together, pray together, give together, and seek to hear from God together through the preaching of his Word. Although we encourage all ages from infants to nonagenarians to worship together in all our worship services, we do have a cry room in the back corner of the sanctuary equipped with a crib, changing table, rocking chair, sofa, and a television that livestreams our worship service, for the moments when those little ones might need some special attention. 

Sunday Evening Worship Service – Our Sunday Evening Worship Service meets in the sanctuary at 4:00pm on Sundays. This is a completely different service with a completely different feel and a completely different message from our morning service. The evening service is a little more informal, a little more intimate, and allows the pastor a little more time to lead Bible study. We encourage our members to attend both services for the most spiritual impact. And, because the service is at 4pm, you can still get home before dark!

Choir Practice – We love to encourage our church members to serve the Lord, and one of the service opportunities we offer is singing in the church choir. There is no formal audition and no special requirements to be in the choir other than a willing heart and a smiling face! The choir rehearses each week at 5pm, immediately after the Sunday Evening Worship Service.

Church Office Hours – Our church office is open Monday through Thursday from 8am to 12pm. Come in anytime for a visit, a cup of coffee, a chat with the staff, or for just a little quiet time and some good company! We always love to see you and we’re always here to serve. And who knows, we just might have some fresh-baked cookies waiting for you when you get here!

Fun Day Monday – Mondays are hard, but friends and fun definitely make them better! Fun Day Monday is a time we’ve set aside for our retirees and senior adults to come together for no other reason than to just enjoy one another’s company and have fun! Show up around 10:00am on Mondays and there’s no telling who or what you might find! Whether you want to play board games with a buddy, make crafts with your friends, sit around a table and talk, or check out a book from the church library and find a quiet corner to relax and unwind, the church is open and at your disposal! And, it’s a great opportunity to invite your friends and neighbors to come and get to know our church.

Evangelizin’ and Exercisin’ – A little sunshine and exercise is good for the body and talking about Jesus is good for the soul! Join us on Tuesdays at 10:00am for Evangelizin’ and Exercisin,’ where we travel to a park or public place around Fairhope and do some walking. And as we walk we take the opportunity to tell others about Jesus and invite them to Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church. If you have physical limitations, don’t worry, we have you covered. Everywhere we go has paved walking areas with lots of benches. You can exercise as much, or as little, as you want. The whole point is to just be together and to share the love of Jesus with everyone we meet!

Missions and Evangelism Ministry – The first Tuesday of each month at 10:00am, instead of Evangelizin’ and Exercisin’, we hold our Missions and Evangelism Ministry Team Meeting in the Missions Room across the hall from the Church Office. During this meeting we learn about missionaries and mission work, have a missions-focused time of devotion, pray by name for our missionaries who are celebrating birthdays, share reports from the various missions ministries we support, and work together to implement a strategy for missions awareness, missions offering promotion, and missions service opportunities and activities at Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church. 

Church Lunch Out – Following the Missions and Evangelism Ministry Team Meeting on the first Tuesday of each month, we all go out to eat at a local restaurant. We go to a different restaurant every month. You can meet us at the church at 11:30am and catch the church bus, or you can just meet us at the restaurant at noon. However you choose to get there, we always look forward to a time of good food and great fellowship at Church Lunch Out.

Mid-Week Prayer Service (Morning Option) – We know it’s difficult for some of our retirees and senior adults to get out at night, so we offer an option for our Mid-Week Prayer Service on Wednesday mornings at 10am. Led by our Prayer Ministry Team Leader, our Mid-Week Prayer Service is a time specifically devoted to sharing prayer requests, sharing updates on those who are on our prayer list, lifting our prayers and petitions before God, and praising God and giving him glory as he answers our prayers. Each attendee is given a prayer list and has an opportunity to participate in every part of this special weekly service where we pray by name for every need.

Mid-Week Prayer Service (Evening Option) – For working folks and students who can’t make the Mid-Week Prayer Service at 10:00am, we also offer an evening option at 6:00pm. And since these same folks usually aren’t able to participate in Jawin’ and Java at 10:00am on Thursdays, we have designed our Mid-Week Prayer Service (Evening Option) to use a portion of the service for prayer and a portion of the service for Bible study, Jawin’ and Java style. Basically, if you can’t make Prayer Service and Jawin’ and Java because they are in the morning, you now have an option to participate in both, on a single night, at a time that will work for you.

Church Business Meeting – Our church business meeting is a time for church members to gather once per month and celebrate what God is doing in and through Fairhope Avenue Baptist Church. At these meetings, church members are updated on the financial, business, and ministry status of the church and are given the opportunity to discuss and vote on matters of importance to the church. The monthly church business meeting is always held at 6:00pm on the Wednesday that falls between the 10th and 16th of each month. Transportation to and from the church business meeting is available upon request for church members who cannot or prefer not to drive at night.

Jawin’ and Java – As we study the Bible, listen to preaching, sit under teaching, and discuss the Bible with our family and friends, we often have questions or encounter things that confuse or baffle us. Jawin’ and Java is an informal Bible study where we can sit down together, have a cup of coffee, and have our questions answered by the pastor. There’s no book, no curriculum, and no pressure. We just ask our questions, and the pastor shows us the answers in the Bible. It’s just that simple.

Jawin’ and Java is a safe place where we can ask, without judgment, anything that perplexes or eludes us concerning the Bible or Christian life. We’ve tackled questions as far ranging as “do aliens exist” and “do our pets go to heaven when they die” to “what is Calvinism all about” and “why didn’t God come up with some other way to save us where Jesus didn’t have to suffer and die.” Every question is taken seriously, we all learn from the discussion, and we all grow closer to one another and to Christ in the process. 

Jawin’ and Java takes place in the Fellowship Hall every Thursday at 10am. For those who cannot attend on Thursday morning, Jawin’ and Java is now available as part of the Mid-Week Prayer Service (Evening Option) as well.