Fellowship Baptist Church

Upcoming Events

Today 4:00 pm Riverside Youth Theatre

Today 6:30 pm Ibarra's Life Group

Today 6:30 pm Youth Group

Fellowship Baptist Church, formerly known as Magnolia Baptist Church, held its first service in July 1951 at the Gossett home, with an attendance of 18.  In November 1951 when the church was incorporated under the leadership of Rev. Leonard Prentice, who served as Senior Pastor until December 1961, it was meeting in rented quarters on Sunnyside Drive in Magnolia Center, hence the former name.

With a commitment to grow, our current property was purchased Feb. 6th 1953.  The first building (the current nursery building) on our campus was built in September 1953 with a membership of 78, and the current sanctuary was built in 1958 with a membership of 200.  The educational building/dining hall was built in 1966.

Fellowship Baptist Church has had 7 Lead pastors who have served the congregation over the years.  Currently under the spiritual leadership of Pastor David Stanley, Fellowship Baptist Church has a determined commitment to becoming a healthy church in 9 essential areas, committed to missions and outreach.

In the early 1980’s the name Magnolia Baptist Church was changed to Fellowship Baptist Church due to the similarity in names from the Southern Baptist church plant Magnolia Avenue Baptist Church and all the mixed up mail and phone calls.

Fellowship Baptist Church is committed to the family and her needs.  Leaving behind the dated magnolia blossom and steeple logo Fellowship Baptist Church changed her logo to a family oriented logo, which you see below:


Another aspect of family oriented ministry is our Wednesday evening Life group Bible Study that works hand in hand with our AWANA program.  Parents can enroll their kids in AWANA and join other adults for Bible study in our Life group.  The Life group is a Bible study committed to increasing a person’s theological framework as they are in relationship with Jesus Christ and their familial love for one another in the home and love for others in the body of Christ.  Held in conjunction with AWANA the family can worship together on Wednesday nights through intimate small groups.

Only the Lord knows the future of Fellowship Baptist Church, but we are committed to reaching the lost until he comes.  If you have further questions about our history or the vision we have for the future, please don’t be hesitant to ask Pastor Dave or one of the elders.

The Membership Covenant of Fellowship Baptist Church

Having first received God's grace by being drawn to salvation in His Son, and then witnessing to that salvation in baptism, we further commit ourselves together as a church family to pursue our mutual growth by subscribing to the following goals:

•     To follow the Bible as the sole rule for our beliefs and behavior.

•     To worship, study the Bible and pray as individuals and as families, and especially to educate our children to love and obey God.

•     To commit ourselves to the Scriptural teaching which instructs us "To behave decently--not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.  Rather let us clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature."

•     To show ourselves as clear witnesses for our Lord, leading people to Christ and His church.

•     To pray for each other and for the growth and advancement of our Church and to actualize our care by watching over, encouraging and helping each other.  In addition, when misunderstandings arise, we will take the initiative to obtain reconciliation with each other without delay.

•     To give the church our loyalty by participating in its worship, program and ordinances, by supporting each other as fellow members and also the beliefs we hold in common, by giving our money, and by utilizing our Spirit-given gifts in ministry.

•     To fulfill the spirit of this Covenant, when we move from this area by uniting with another church. Amen.

Church Membership and My Responsibilities:

Since many in our society see the church as nothing more than a black hole wanting to suck the dollars out of your pocket for their own gain I would like to defend the idea of church membership and the responsibilities of each member to the body of Christ.  If you have been involved in a Christ centered church for any length of time you know the above statement about the church being a “black hole” is false.  Granted there are some who are more focused on money than the gospel but those are far and few between.  So what responsibilities should a member fulfill?

It is clear scripturally that God requires us to doing something with our faith i.e. work at it. James 2:14-18 & Phil 2:12-13 are classic examples of this. The full texts are below:



Church membership is a sacred responsibility.  We live in a shifting culture where commitment to anything is hard to come by.  Our marriages are noncommittal anymore and everything in our society is seen as throw away.  We throw away kids and call it abortion – we throw away our marriages and call it divorce – we throw away careers and call it a mid life crisis – we throw away all sorts of junk and pile it in our landfills.  We are truly a throw away culture, but the church doesn’t have to be that way.  The Lord is looking for commitment.  That’s why he puts such a high price on following him.  “Take up your cross and follow me.”  This high price does indeed take some effort on your part.  We are not called to be “sideline” Christians.  We are called, empowered, gifted, and filled to “get in the ball game”.  God expects you to be used for His kingdom and it starts with the local church. 

There are 6 areas that the Lord expects “work” from you:

1. Serving:  Find the place you are to serve the rest of the Body.  Know your talents, and giftedness.  Take a spiritual survey to discover your gift and then get busy.  There are many areas that your giftedness can be used in. God is calling -- will you follow?

2. Learning: You must be about growth.  God expects you to be learning all you can by developing daily study habits or reading your Bible. You should be involved in at least one Life group Bible study during the week where your learning curve can increase.  Don’t expect the morning sermon to be your study time.  You need to engage the text yourself.

3. Giving:  God expects you to give your fair share in supporting the budget of the church’s ministries.  You should give freely and cheerfully without the mindset of gaining anything from your giving.  Your giving should be systematic, consistent, and proportionate to your income, not giving what you can spare.  God has graciously given to you the responsibility of being a steward of resources that He owns and He desires obedience in this area.  If you are unable to give due to strangling debt, please see the elders who can hook you up with debt counselors that will be able to free you up in this area to honor God.

4. Witnessing:  The Bible is clear that each believer is to be a witness.  Notice I said witness and not Billy Graham.  There is only one Billy Graham and you are not him.  All God desires is for you to have a willingness to take the Gospel message to a lost world.  If you feel you are not adequate and need to be equipped, I would suggest taking our semester long EE course when it is offered that does just that, equips you to share your faith.  You are not expected to scream from street corners but to quietly and reverently impact the world around you by being an enlightening force for the Gospel.

5. Praying:  Praying is a discipline that many struggle within the church. The Bible is clear that we are to pray without ceasing and to bring all things to the Lord in prayer.  Establish a consistent prayer life and the joys of serving the Lord will increase 10 fold.  In prayer the believer finds a life of contentment, security and oneness with the rest of the body of Christ.  Prayer ministries within the church abound -- examples include our prayer chain, prayer team rotations during our morning messages and small group prayer meetings. The question is not where to get involved, but will you?

6. Worshipping:  The church gathers itself to encourage one another and express ourselves in corporate worship.  The Bible is clear that we have a duty to offer ourselves up to God in a manner of sacrificial worship – a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2).  The Bible speaks of the fruit of our lips as spiritual service to God i.e. praise.  The church does that in a corporate setting.  You are sorely missed if you’re not in attendance. Our worship service is the entry point of our vision for Pleasing Christ Always. You will hear more about this later in the sessions.

Your Personal Spiritual Health Affects All

Please understand that you are a member of the body of Christ and the status of your spiritual health will affect the rest of the body. When you are not healthy in the above 6 categories the rest of the body feels it.


Let me encourage you to focus your energy to being healthy is these 6 areas. In the end, I think our church will benefit greatly from your individual discipline.