To glorify God by holy living and gospel advancement.

WHO WE ARE


Faith Baptist Church West Jefferson is a group of believers with a desire to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." We all have our own story but we all share in the story of the transforming work of Christ in our lives. We invite you to join us and help accomplish this purpose that He has given us.

OUR VISION

Our vision is to be a growing community of Christ-centered people who depend upon God's word to transform lives. We are guided by three principles: 

1 - We are to be a community of true, Biblical engagement. This means we read our Bibles, study our Bibles, and preach from our Bibles. 

2 - We are to be a community that emphasizes God's pattern for the family. This means we aspire to come alongside the family and help them live out their faith and God-given purpose. 

3 - We are to be a community that actively participates in local and global missions. This means we not only support missionaries prayerfully and financially but also in our own God-given Gospel Advancement cause.


MEET OUR TEAM

Senior Pastor

Senior Pastor

Joseph Howard


Pastor Joseph Howard is a father to six and the husband to the love of his life. Joseph joined the Faith Baptist family from Trussville Southside Baptist Church in November of 2020. He serves as the chaplain of the Dora High School athletics and is the founder/director of Gospel Advance South Sudan. He and Lauren have been married for over 15 years.

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Associate Pastor

Associate Pastor

Timothy Loveless


Timothy grew up in Festus, Missouri and was as a member of Harvest Baptist Church. Having worked under the ministry of his father for a number of years, he joined the Faith Baptist family in 2023. Timothy is a vital aspect of many of the functions of the church and leads the youth program. He and Emma have been married for over 5 years and have three beautiful children.

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WHAT WE BELIEVE

The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books, all divinely inspired of God. Letting the Bible speak for itself, it says that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God." When it says this, it means that God literally breathed out the words that were penned by "holy men of God [who] spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Since God breathed these words out, it is His complete revelation to man of what we are to know about Him and becomes our authority in all matters of doctrine, faith and practice. Since God means for His word to be taken literally, He literally took measures to preserve it. Hebrew Masoretes (a group of Jewish scribe-scholars) worked meticulously to copy the Scripture from papyrus to papyrus. The King James version, is the only English translation stemming directly from the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament; for this reason, we use this translation.

God has always existed; before the world was created and long after it will be renewed, God was there. There is only one living God though He exists in three persons: The Father, The Son (Word), and the Holy Ghost. The Father is a Spirit so He can't be seen. Along with the other persons of the Trinity, He is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, immutable, perfect, and sovereign. The Son is God also, He was responsible for creating the world and He is responsible for sustaining the world. Before the foundation of the world, it was decided that the Son would humble Himself and come down to the earth in order to save mankind. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, performed miracles, atoned for the sins of the whole world by His sacrificial death, was buried for three days, rose from death, was seen of +500 men, ascended into heaven and is sitting on the right hand of the Father acting as the Advocate and High Priest of all who are His.  The Holy Ghost is the third person in the Trinity. He was responsible for giving us the Bible and is now responsible for "reprov[ing] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." Once a person is saved, the Holy Ghost then seals, teaches, brings all things into remembrance, and becomes our help in prayer. 

God created the world ~6,000 years ago. Man was created directly in God's own image and after His own likeness (not by a process of evolution over periods of time). Our first man (Adam) and his companion (Eve) chose to disobey God because they wanted to be like God. This disobedience, which the Bible calls sin, separated sinful man from a sinless God. From that point forward, man has been "under sin". What does it mean to be "under sin?" It means you sin because you're a sinner, not that you're a sinner because you sin. (Fish swim because they are fish! Birds fly because they are birds! We sin because we are sinners!) This creates a real problem since all of us are "under sin" and can't stop.

God created a perfect place called Heaven where He intends to spend all of eternity with us. Because none of us are perfect, we have to be made perfect (the Bible calls that "righteous") by means of a transaction outside of us rather than inside of us. If this transaction of righteousness is made for us then we will spend eternity in Heaven with God; if not, we will spend eternity in the lake of fire with Satan and without God. Yes, hell and the lake of fire are real, regardless of what you may have been told and pretending that a loving God wouldn't ever send anyone there is like pretending you are a bird and jumping off a roof. The souls of unbelievers at death descend immediately into hell where they are kept under conscious torment until the Great White Throne Judgment, then, their bodies will be raised from the grave only to be judged and cast into the lake of fire - the place of everlasting conscious torment. 

Yes, you've sinned (you've broken God's commandments and you haven't loved Him as you should have); you did that because you are "under sin". What you probably feel like you need to do is to stop all this sinning business and straighten up - that's a valid thought that goes through everybody's mind! Unfortunately, it just doesn't work. The Law (God's commandments, His "do's and don'ts") weren't ever intended to be used an avenue to obtain righteousness; they were meant to teach us a valuable lesson - we could never keep all of God's commandments in a million years of trying. What God says that you need to do is believe that His plan is much better than yours. His plan was to send His Son, who wasn't "under sin" (that's why He had to be born of a virgin!); His Son would then have to live an absolutely perfect life and never sin; His Son would then be an acceptable sacrifice to pay for the sins of everyone who would ever live. God beat His Son to death so that you wouldn't have to be punished for your sins and you could claim the righteousness that was due Him. That's why Jesus had to die and be buried; He rose again (after three days) to prove that He truly was God and to give you the hope that by believing in His deity and sacrifice you will rise from death too. What great news! So what about repentance, I've heard that is a big deal too? Yes repentance is a big deal, it means to change your mind. Change your mind about what? - About the fact that you are a sinner and you need to be saved and without believing what Jesus did for you, you would never stand a chance of spending eternity with God in Heaven. Repentance and belief are two sides of the same coin.

"In Christ" is the most often used phraseology to describe a person who is saved. We most often use the term "Christian" but they mean the same thing. Sure, being in Christ has a lot of responsibilities but they don't get you saved and they don't keep you saved. Think of it this way, if you are headed to Africa, you don't have to take a plane but the swimming is hard and the sharks will love you for it. Being in Christ gives you the opportunity to declare your identification with your Lord pubicly, it gives you the opportunity to become a member of a local church where you can serve Him, it gives you the opportunity to remember what He did for you through taking the Lord's Supper, and it gives you the opportunity to make disciples of all nations (that's what we call "missions"). Missions isn't the responsibility of the church organization; it is the responsibility of every believer - whether you give or go, you have the responsibility and the privilege.

People often ask if we are one of "those churches." There are a lot of churches out there and that's a valid question! We want to please God so we work at not abusing grace. We believe in separation and living a sanctified life so we preach on sin and we emphasize devotion to God. Most of the women wear dresses but not all of them do; most of our men dress in business casual and some men wear suits; during our praise time, we sing songs to God that accentuate His character rather than our pilgrimage (theologically-rich hymns); during our preaching time, we teach the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts. At the heart of it, we strive to be a God-honoring community of diverse people who love God and love each other.

If the Bible was a play, the production would be called "Redemption." It wouldn't be a narrative that you get to follow along with, it would be a meta-narrative that you get to join in. This world is bad and it isn't getting any better; the Bible says that we are living in "the last days." Soon, Jesus will come to rapture those who are His and still alive as well as those who are His and have already died; the world will experience intense tribulation for seven years; Christ will come back with His saints and execute judgment on all of the world; Satan will be cast into a bottomless pit for 1,000 years and Jesus will rule supreme; Satan will have a comeback tour only to be utterly defeated; He will be judged along with all unbelievers and a new forever will be had for those who are His. The only thing that matters is where you fit into the meta-narrative.