Providence Baptist Church originated with a group of church members coming out of First Baptist Church of Perryville in 1996. On May 15 of that year, these members organized as Perryville Southern Baptist Mission under the sponsorship of First Baptist Church of Bigelow, AR. On July 10, 1996, the mission voted to become its own church known originally as Perryville Second Baptist Church. The church’s current building was built in the summer of 1997.
Bro. James G. Haggard was the first pastor of our church and from 1996 to 2015 the church had a total of 9 different pastors each serving in the one pastor with a plurality of deacons model of ecclesiology. In 2016 Bro. Allen S. Nelson IV began his ministry here as the church’s 10th pastor. During the mid-2010s the church had slowly started seeking to be healthier in its membership practices, and then later in its worship and evangelistic practices. These slow changes were hampered by the Covid situation of 2020. The state of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Nation, and the church’s slow progress in reformation culminated in a sermon preached on July 24, 2022, from Jeremiah 6 entitled A Church at the Crossroads. To fully understand where our church is today, it would be helpful to listen to that message.
From July 2022 onward, the church began to experience more significant biblical reformation. The church adopted the 1689 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith as its official Confession in March of 2023 and the next month, officially shifted to a plurality of elders model of church leadership installing another elder, Bro. Jacob Robinson.(staff page). Members became more focused and zealous toward evangelism, prayer, biblical homes, and worship. As a reflection of these changes, in the summer of 2023, the church voted to change its name from Perryville Second Baptist Church to Providence Baptist Church. Ultimately, the seed planted here in 1996 has borne the fruit today of a solid biblical Baptist church. You can read our church’s distinctives here.
Labels can be somewhat confusing at times, but if we get to define it, (and we do!) our church is what is known as a “Reformed Baptist Church.” You can read more about what a Reformed Baptist is over at Founders, but a quick definition is this:
- We believe in the 5 Solas of the Reformation. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished work of Christ alone, unto the glory of God alone. All of this is derived from our ultimate authority which is the Scriptures alone. The Scriptures are the infallible, inerrant, God-breathed, necessary, sufficient, clear, and authoritative Word from the living God that we are obligated to know, trust, and obey.
- We are confessional. That is, we do not believe the 1689 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith is inerrant or infallible. We do, however, unapologetically understand its teaching as a helpful summation of what God teaches us in His Word. (Click here for more about why we are confessional.)
- We believe the Bible’s teaching on the doctrine of election and predestination. Though this can be a hot-button word, this belief is often referred to as “Calvinism.” What we mean by that word is that before the foundation of the world, God elected a people for salvation out of the fallen mass of humanity (Eph. 1:3-14, Matthew 1:21). We believe it is the church’s great honor and obligation to proclaim the gospel – the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for sinners – to the nations. All persons regardless of ethnicity, gender, or sinful behaviors, must be told of the gospel of our Lord Jesus and offered a real opportunity of pardon from our gracious King (2 Cor. 5:20, Ezekiel 33:11). Those who do call upon the name of the Lord in saving faith and repentance will be forgiven, justified, adopted, sanctified, and eventually glorified, even as only God Himself in His sovereign grace is the very reason for their trust in Him as He has first drawn them to Himself and given them life (John 6:44, 6:63) – salvation from beginning to end belongs to the Lord! (Jonah 2:9)
