First Baptist Church has a long history of dedicated youth ministry marked by both faithfulness and fruitfulness. Across many decades, the methods employed may have changed, but the purpose has remained the same: to introduce youth to Jesus, invite them to follow Him, and equip them to live as His disciples. To accomplish this, we partner with parents to support them in discipling their youth and surround them with caring adults who seek to invest in their lives and strengthen their relationship with Jesus and their relationships with each other. We currently employ a variety of weekly program ..read more

On November 10, 1849, nine men and women covenanted together before God as the First Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Fla. This year, on November 10, 2024, we will celebrate our 175th anniversary as a church. Jesus promised his disciples that he would build his church upon the rock of our confession of faith in him, and that as long as we stood upon that rock, not even the gates of hell would prevail against us (Matthew 16:16-18). In marking this anniversary, we are really marking God’s faithfulness to us over generations, how the gospel has advanced and continues to advance among us. It is only ..read more

On Sunday, Nov. 26, we begin our observation of Advent with our Hanging of the Green service. This will be a combined worship service at 10:30 AM, with Sunday Morning Bible Study that morning at 9:15. Over the next four weeks, we will examine the hope, peace, love, and joy of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Advent is a season of preparation that helps us as a church to look forward to the celebration of Christmas, and beyond Christmas to the second coming of Jesus Christ. During this season we remember how our Savior humbled himself to be born and live among those He would save. We remember t ..read more

If the mission of First Baptist Church of Tallahassee is to find and follow Jesus, how do we, its members, accomplish this mission? At the heart of FBCTLH’s mission is the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20), and though some steps in this Biblical mandate are clear, others still may be more elusive. For example, what is a disciple, and how does one become a disciple-maker? For me, the two photos below model both the heart and method of discipleship: equip and send. Look closely. You see the cast photo from this summer’s children’s musical, Mission Possible: Sharing the Gospel by Our Love. In t ..read more

Hello Church, We miss you! God has worked in some wonderful ways over the first half of my sabbatical. Kristin and I traveled to Greece, Turkey, and Italy, where we were able to tour several wonderful biblical and historical sites, including Athens, Ephesus, Patmos, and Rome. This not only helped equip us to lead a trip to Greece next year, but also gave us a deeper understanding and appreciation of God’s Word and the spread of the gospel throughout the world. As a family, we spent a week at a pastor’s retreat center in Georgia, unplugging from everything and seeking God together. I have also ..read more

Next year, April 1-10, 2024, Kristin and I are planning to lead a group from our church on a trip to Greece, where we will trace the steps of Paul’s second missionary journey outlined in Acts 16-18. We will fly from Atlanta to Thessaloniki, and from there visit Philippi, Berea, Meteora, Athens, and Corinth. We will then fly home from Athens. We were blessed to take this trip ourselves last December, and we cannot wait to share what we saw and experienced. Our personal highlights include seeing the jail where Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Philippi, the site of Lydia’s baptism, Mar’s Hill, t ..read more

Next year, April 1-10, 2024, Kristin and I are planning to lead a group from our church on a trip to Greece, where we will trace the steps of Paul’s second missionary journey outlined in Acts 16-18. We will fly from Atlanta to Thessaloniki, and from there visit Philippi, Berea, Meteora, Athens, and Corinth. We will then fly home from Athens. We were blessed to take this trip ourselves last December, and we cannot wait to share what we saw and experienced. Our personal highlights include seeing the jail where Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Philippi, the site of Lydia’s baptism, Mar’s Hill, t ..read more

This Sunday, April 23, we will begin a new sermon series titled “For Such a Time as This” from the book of Esther. The book of Esther tells how at one crucial moment in history, God’s promises were kept and experienced not by his miraculous intervention, but through completely ordinary events where God’s work could only be seen and understood through the eyes of faith. It helps us to know, in a world where God can seem absent, he is at work. Therefore, we can live for him, we can be on gospel mission for him, knowing he is at work even if we struggle to see it. This year our focus from the pul ..read more

In late 1976, a man named Jean-Bedel Bokassa led a government takeover in the Central African Republic, a nation right in the middle of Africa. Naturally, as the leader of the takeover, he decided it would be a good idea if he became the new leader of the government. But being President was not enough for him. He proceeded to dissolve the existing government, rename the country the Central African Empire, and declare himself Emperor Bokassa I. Wanting to make the right impression and establish his credentials as his Imperial Majesty, he decided to throw the most lavish and opulent coronation c ..read more

In Matthew 22:21, Jesus says “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” With that phrase, our Savior establishes the validity of human government and its limits. Caesar has his name and image on certain things, so they rightly belong to him. In other words, there is a proper domain and function for human government; human government is ordained and established by God himself. However, God has stamped his own image on every one of us, including Caesar and every President, senator, representative, king, queen, and dictator that has ever lived. Every human being is made in his i ..read more