About

Our
Mission

We are a church with a warm fellowship and a heart for our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is our mission to equip believers to live the abundant Christian life so they can glorify God, evangelize the world and show God’s love to others.

Service Time

Sunday

9:00am – Estudio Biblico en Español a las
En nuestro salón social

9:30 AM – Sunday School
10:50 AM – Morning Worship and Children’s Church (K-5)

Wednesday

6:00 PM – Adult Bible fellowship
6:00 PM – Bible, Drills, Skills and Thrills (1st- 6th Grades)

A nursery with caring staff is provided for all services.

What We Believe

The Godhead

God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-equal and eternal, holy, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, all loving.

· God the Father: God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe. He is “fatherly” in his love and care for all creation and human beings, desiring that all people become his children.

· God the Son: Jesus Christ is, eternally, the only Son of God. He is the Word made flesh, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He always was fully God but became fully man. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross as the substitutionary atonement for man, was buried, resurrected on the third day, and is coming again for all who believe in Him.

· God the Holy Spirit: Indwells every believer for the purpose of empowering them to live a God-reflective life. He is fully God and co-equal with other members of the Godhead. He is responsible for conviction, illumination, baptism into the body of Christ, indwelling, sealing salvation, empowering, guiding, and sanctifying.

Humanity

Humans are the special creation of God, made in his image. We believe that humans are sinful and separated from God and therefore must experience the saving work of Christ by faith in order to have a relationship with God. All people are separated from God by their sinful nature until they trust Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Salvation

It is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. (Salvation is a requirement for church membership.)
A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart produced by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

B. Justification: God’s gracious and full acquittal by his righteousness for all sinners who repent and believe in Christ.

C. Sanctification: the experience, beginning at regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

D. Glorification: the culmination of salvation and the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed. We will be made perfect, conformed to the image of Christ.

The Bible

It was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to us. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction for us. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.

The Church

We believe the church universal is the body of Christ and is to be about His work of making disciples from the world. The universal church is made up of many local churches of different denominations.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It pictures what Jesus did for us and is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior. True believers have died to sin, have buried the old life, and are raised to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to faith in the final resurrection of the dead. (As a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership.)

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act whereby Christians, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. (One must be a Christian to take the Lord’s Supper but does not have to be a member here.)

The Kingdom of God

Both God’s general sovereignty over the universe and his particular kingship over those who willfully acknowledge Him as Lord. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.

Last Things

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

Marriage & Family

God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of people related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race. (The husband and wife are of equal worth before God since both are created in God’s image.)

Marriage models the way God relates to His people. As a husband is to love his wife, Christ loves the church. As a wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband, the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.

Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord and are to be loved, cared for, and led spiritually to make choices based on biblical truth.

Meet Our Staff

Mark Farish

Senior Pastor

Mark #1 is from the distant land of Irving, Texas (former home of the Dallas Cowboys.) After graduating from high school there, he went on to Baylor University in Waco and Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth. He has pastored churches in Gatesville, Texas, Montgomery, and Dallas (Oak Cliff and East Dallas) prior to coming to FBC-Heath.

Mark is married to Teresa (good move!) and they have two married children, and, most importantly, six grandkids) Mark enjoys time with family and friends, sports, working out, and almost any kind of food,

E-mail Mark: mfarish@fbcheath.com

Mark Johnston

Minister of Music, Communications and Connections

Mark #2 was born in Oak Cliff, and grew up in Northeast Dallas. After (barely) graduating from Bryan Adams High School, he went on to study music at Eastfield College in Mesquite.

He and his wife, Angelia, have four kids and five grandchildren. He has played piano since he was 7, and guitar since he was 13. Lacking any other discernible skills, he writes songs and records music in his spare time.

He is also an unashamed and unrepentant coffee snob.

E-mail Mark J: mjohnston@fbcheath.com

Candy Richmond

Administrative Assistant

Candy was born in Oak Cliff. Prior to becoming the Administrative Assistant at FBC Heath she retired from Bank of America after 37 years. Candy is married to Robert and they have 2 married children, 4 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. Candy enjoys volunteering, music and any kind of crafting.

E-mail Candy: assistant@fbcheath.com

Carla Besco

Children’s Coordinator

Carla is from all over! She has lived in a number of places thanks to her husband, Steve, and his job! She is mom to three amazing daughters, Amanda, Ashley, and Abby, one amazing son-in-law, and best of all, one precious miracle grandson! She as served in Children’s Ministry for over forty years in a number of capacities. She loves to make the scripture known to every child. Her passion has been sharing the love of Christ with children for as long as she can remember.

Coming to FBC-Heath was a shock and a wonderful surprise… considering this is the third time she has returned from retirement! Saying ‘no’ to God and children is just not something she can do. There are numerous Bible verses about children being a blessing in the Bible, and we can all follow Jesus’ example by showing a child that he or she has value in our eyes and in the eyes of God!

E-mail Carla: cbesco@fbcheath.com