Name: First Baptist Church of Royal Palm Beach
Leaders: We have two pastors, the Rev. Jim Meldrim and I’m (the Rev.) Dale Faircloth. We are both lead pastors.
Location: 10701 Okeechobee Blvd., Royal Palm Beach
Congregation size: 500
Services: On Sunday morning, we have celebration services at 9 and 10:30 a.m., and on Wednesday nights, 7 p.m. We also have small groups that meet throughout the week in people’s homes.
Q. Describe a typical service.
A. Our services are contemporary in that we strive to present the Gospel message in a relevant and creative way. We use a lot of video, drama and props. It’s basically a multimedia presentation. The goal is to communicate in the language of our culture. We have team pastoring; we take turns teaching the message during the service.
We rotate the teaching responsibilities, we each teach on a series. To give you an idea of what topics we teach on, we did a series on “The Secrets of the Y Chromosome,” another one called “Women by Design” and another called “12 Spiritual Laws of Highly Effective People.” The one that is currently going on is called “New You Through Christ.” Every month there is a new theme and there is a multimedia presentation with video clips or personal testimonies.
Once, Pastor Jim was speaking of Jesus being the bread of life and we had breadmakers scattered throughout the sanctuary, so while he spoke about the bread of life, the smell of bread was hitting you. It’s a multisensory experience.
Q. What is the church’s mission?
A. It is specifically stated: To glorify God by leading others to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Q. What programs are available for members?
A. We don’t use the term “members.” We prefer “ministry partners” because members has the connotation that you join and have privileges. That’s not the scriptural view of the church. The church is people who have come together under Jesus Christ.
Some of the programs include small groups whose primary goal is to build community. Very few people here have extended families, so there is a real need for community.
Q. Do you have outreach programs?
A. We are very prominently located right at the entrance to Royal Palm Beach, so we have extremely high visibility. That is our main outreach. Since we know that most people will come on Sunday morning, we have the celebration approach so our outreach is really every Sunday morning.
Second, we reach out by way of service projects. For instance, we have a relationship with the village of Royal Palm Beach. For example, if the village has to write someone a citation because they can’t paint their house, but it happens to be an elderly couple or a person who can’t paint their house themselves, they call us and ask us to help them out. Our men’s group will go out and paint their home.
Q. What plans do you have for the future?
A. In the near future, we are going to build a children’s wing with a full multimedia auditorium and indoor playground. That will probably happen in a year or two.
Q. When was your church founded?
A. I’ve been with the church from the beginning. We started out with 50 people. The church celebrated its 11th year on March 13. We began meeting at the cultural center and stayed there about four years. Then, we moved into the gymnasium at Royal Palm Beach High School. We will celebrate our third year in the church building in September.
Q. What makes your church unique?
A. Our culture is very authentic. The people here are very real and down to earth.
First Baptist Church of Royal Palm Beach, visit the Web site at
or call 561-793-2475.
Houses of worship may inquire about profiles by e-mailing Minerva Romo at or calling 561-243-6614.
