There's lots of good churches out there. There might even be one close to you that you’re supposed to connect with. Most of the people who drive some distance to go to 2BC (and we have folks driving from as far away as Cabot, Conway, and Bryant) do so because they value our church’s progressive spirit and emphasis on creativity and learning.

We're located at the corner of 8th and Cumberland downtown a few blocks south of the Rivermarket. To locate us on a map, click here.

We have two different worship services. Our early service is mainly traditional with the occasional use of a chorus (though lots of different instruments get used, not just the organ and piano). Our late service is very contemporary with drums, keyboard, and guitar. Both services stress creativity.

Interestingly, both services have become more casual in terms of dress in recent years. A few men wear coats and ties in the first service, but many do not. Some women wear dresses, but most don't. And it wouldn’t be at all unusual to find people in jeans or shorts in either service. For more information see the worship section of our website.

We’re the kind of Baptists that stress freedom. We’re the kind of Baptists who treasure the authority of the Bible, but who also expect to wrestle with the tremendous complexity of the scriptures. We’re definitely the kind of Baptists who trust women to be in roles of leadership in the Church (we have several female ministers on staff). At one point in our history, our primary connection was with the Southern Baptist Convention, but due to changes in that body over the past twenty years, our affiliation with the S.B.C. is very limited. Now our primary partnership is with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. More importantly, we believe that every Baptist church is autonomous, so we’re not willing to be completely identified by who we partner with (no matter who that partner is), but instead believe we are best identified by the way we worship, practice discipleship, build community, and do mission in the world. You can also take a more in depth look at who we are here.

We have two overlapping groups of young adults at Second Baptist.

In 2007, a new ministry was launched at 2BC designed mainly for people who are post college, married or unmarried, but do not have yet have children (though we don’t tend to draw hard lines for involvement at Second Baptist which means we always have people who aren’t part of the target group that participate). The ministry is called REstore.

The REstore community focuses on building deep friendships, discussing issues that matter, and living intentionally. From the beginning the goal for this community has been to create an environment where people who don’t like church or traditional religion could find a place of welcome. For more information about REstore contact Chris Ellis.

In addition to REstore, we also have a very large and active Young Adult Sunday School Department. The Young Adult Department is a more traditional Bible study group. It meets on Sunday mornings and has three classes divided mainly by life stage (but which also divides up multiple times a year based on various topical learning opportunities). For information on how to connect with this group in our church contact Betsy Young.

Second Baptist does student ministry a little differently than some places. There’s less emphasis on having a flashy program, and more emphasis on empowering students to build habits of faith for a lifetime.

That’s not to say our students don’t have fun. Our students have taken mission trips to Canada, Ski trips to Colorado, and take a mystery trip every summer to a fun location. They play ultimate Frisbee together every Sunday at Burns Park among other opportunities for fellowship and fun.

But these activities are just a means to an end of challenging them to have a deep faith, and to live lives accountable to one another and God.

One of the best ways you see how our approach to student ministry works is in what happens when those active in our student ministry go off to college. A lot of college students step away from active faith, our students tend to jump in and become active in ministry opportunities when they go off to college. It all starts with making a faith commitment as important as every other commitment a student is asked to make.

For more detailed information on the stuff happening for our students check out our youth ministry page.

Every church’s approach to children’s ministry is somewhat unique. At Second Baptist there are some things that we really stress. We place a really high value on music and worship with our kids. Most of our Wednesday night schedule for kids is musically based (we even use music to teach them things we want them to know about God).

Something else we stress is loving and accepting people who are different. Children at Second Baptist hear all the time about how God loves everyone, and are taught creative ways to put that into practice (like raising money for Heifer International, or being pen pals with other children in poverty stricken places around the world).

We also spend a lot of time teaching our children how to pray. Prayer’s not easy for most people including adults, but we teach our kids to pray for daily concerns in their lives, knowing that a habit developed early will shape them for the rest of their lives.

We try to teach all these lessons in ways that are both fun and transformational for our kids. For more information see our children's ministry page.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where bad things happen, and while a church should be a welcoming place for all people, there are ways to do that that protect everyone involved, especially children. Second Baptist employs professionally trained security personnel to ensure that our church is a safe environment. These folks work hard to ensure that everyone person that we come in contact with at Second Baptist is treated with dignity and respect and also that the campus is as safe as possible.

Additionally, to ensure the safety of the kids who come to 2BC, we strictly maintain a set of policies which ensure that both the volunteers and the paid workers who minister to our children have cleared a background check and been trained in the best ways to teach kids.