The Mission of the Earle Street Baptist Church is to proclaim the message of salvation to our community and throughout the world, to be a home to all who would enter, to minister to the needy, and to assist in personal Christian growth. The church praises God for His wonderful grace, His mighty blessings, and His tender mercies.


These words seek to give expression to our understanding of our church’s purpose for being… and to give direction to the choices we make in the stewardship of our time and talents, energies and financial resources. Earle Street is a thriving congregation, alive and active, but at the heart of our activity is a desire to fulfill the five-fold purpose of the church embodied in our mission statement.

WORSHIP: "to praise God for His wonderful grace, His mighty blessings and His tender mercies."

Earle Street has a rich heritage of worship, and many who have made their way into our congregational life have done so, in large measure, because they have found in our worship life a unique style that is both reverent and inviting. Both the 9:00am and 11:00am Sunday worship services are traditional in style, featuring a sanctuary choir as well as the stirring sounds of the pipe organ and the grand piano. Soloists, guest musicians, and hand bell choirs are often featured to enhance our worship.

We follow the liturgical calendar, celebrating the seasons of the church year: Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Lay involvement in worship leadership is encouraged, with lay people leading prayers, reading Scripture, or conducting children’s sermons. Older children participate as acolytes.

In addition to regular weekly worship, there are special services during the year such as The Hanging of the Green, special Christmas music, an Ash Wednesday service, Holy Week services, and musical presentations.

We also have weekly mid-week services on Wednesday evenings. These are less formal services, taking place in the fellowship hall in conjunction with family night suppers and various youth and children’s activities.

There is a place for you at Earle Street, as we praise God together in times of worship.

MISSIONS: "to proclaim the message of salvation to our community and throughout the world."

Sharing our faith in word and deed is an imperative we take seriously. Through budget gifts and special offerings, we seek to cooperate with a wide array of global missions entities to accomplish the Great Commission. Among those through whom we seek to support mission causes around the world are the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, the South Carolina Baptist Convention, as well as both the national and state Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

We are a part of the Greenville Baptist Association, and we lend support to such local interdenominational mission organizations as United Ministries and the Greenville Rescue Mission. We sponsor two Vietnamese congregations, and have a volunteer team that takes one day each month to distribute food to the disadvantaged served by the Eastside Crisis Center. Additionally, we undertake smaller, monthly mission action projects spearheaded by our WMU.

In July of 2004, in addition to the missions projects associated with our annual Youth experiences at such summer conferences as Centrifuge, M-Fuge and Passport, our High School Youth are traveling to San Francisco for a summer mission project. In the Fall of 2004, volunteers from our church, working with volunteers from John Knox Presbyterian and Aldersgate Methodist churches, will build a Habitat for Humanity House.

There is a place for you at Earle Street, as we seek to share the good news of the love of Jesus Christ with the people of our community and beyond.

FELLOWSHIP: "to be a home to all who would enter."

Home is an important word at Earle Street. We have experienced significant growth in recent years, and a common theme we hear repeated by our newest members is “Earle Street feels like the way I remember church being” or “Earle Street just feels like home.” People have come from all kinds of denominational backgrounds and from all walks of life, drawn together by a hard-to-describe feeling of acceptance and belonging.

A Family Life Center, built in the mid-1990’s, has been the hub of an incredibly active recreation program that includes basketball for all ages, adult volleyball and softball, as well as craft classes in ceramics, basket-weaving, and stained glass, and other activities.

We host community 4th of July celebrations and neighborhood carnivals, and we are always looking for an excuse to hold a picnic, an ice cream social or a church-wide banquet. We just enjoy life and enjoy being with each other and enjoy meeting new people.

We have an active Senior Adult Ministry called the XYZ Club (Xtra Years of Zest). In addition to monthly meetings, this group takes trips together, both near and far.

Our Sunday School classes not only study the Bible together, but get together for all kinds of social activities. There is a place for you in the fellowship life Earle Street


MINISTRY: "to minister to the needy."

We seek to not only enjoy one another, but also to care for one another in times of need. Life is full of challenges and difficulties, and we believe God has called us together to support one another on the journey of life. Mostly, this ministry of support flows naturally out of the relationships we share; but we also seek to be intentional in meeting the needs of a diverse and growing congregation.

While the entire church staff participates in pastoral ministry, we have also sought to encourage the Biblical model that every church member is a minister. We have developed ministry teams to focus on particular times of need, like hospitalization and times of bereavement. We have developed ministry teams to focus on particular types of need, such as on-going grief support and homebound visitation. We have developed ministry teams to address particular areas of need, such as a ministry to college students and another to divorced couples.

We have an active prayer ministry that includes periodic prayer partner emphases and an on-going intercessory prayer team. The church also has a prayer chain that is activated upon request in crisis situations.

There is a place for you at Earle Street to minister to the needs of others … and to be ministered unto in your times of need.


EDUCATION AND DISCIPLESHIP: "to assist in personal Christian growth."

The call to discipleship demands a serious study of the Bible and the traditions of our faith, as well as a support system in the development of spiritual disciplines and the application of this knowledge to daily living. Earle Street has a comprehensive educational ministry that is geared to all ages and all people, no matter where they are in their spiritual pilgrimage.

Our Sunday School is a growing and vibrant ministry, with classes for preschoolers and children, youth and college students, and adults of all ages. Gifted and devoted teachers serve throughout our Sunday School.

Here, also, is where friendships are formed that last a lifetime. Though there are over 300 people present in worship on a given Sunday, it only takes a Sunday or two in Sunday School and everybody knows your name.

We also have special classes and studies throughout the year, including new member orientation classes. The calendar is also sprinkled with special events like spiritual renewal weekends, retreats, camps, and guest lecturers. Our media center is filled with Bible study aids, Christian classics, and all the latest Christian books, readily available to assist you in your quest for new understanding.

Parents with preschoolers may be interested in our weekday early education program. For grades K-2, K-3 and K-4, it meets Monday- Thursday from 9:00am to 1:00pm. This is a ministry in which we seek to lay a foundation for the children of our community to have a life of faith through learning at the earliest age that “Jesus loves me.”


That’s a little bit about our mission. We hope it sounds as exciting and inviting to you as it does to us. We encourage you to go to the “Your Place” section of this web site to find out more about places you can “plug in” to the life and ministry of our church. There truly is a place for you at Earle Street. Come and See!