Our Story: United in Faith, Growing Together

More than 70 years ago, two churches in Lexington, North Carolina—Arrington Heights Free Will Baptist Church and Mount Carmel Free Will Baptist Church—began their journeys separately. Today, by God’s grace, those two congregations have reunited as Greater Vision Free Will Baptist Church, standing together as one family of faith with a shared purpose and a greater vision for the future.

A History of Faith

Arrington Heights Free Will Baptist Church was originally founded in 1936 as Pugtown Free Will Baptist Church on Freewill Circle. A few years later in 1947, some members formed Mount Carmel Free Will Baptist Church just down the road on Arrington Drive. While the reasons for the separation have long been forgotten, the desire to serve Christ as one body has brought the two churches back together.

A New Vision for the Future

Greater Vision FWB currently meets in the former Mount Carmel church building, while plans are underway to build a new, larger facility about half a mile away on Old Highway 52—between Olde South Farm & Garden and the Quality Mart. The new church will seat 400–425 people and is expected to be completed by early 2027.

The reunification came naturally as members from both churches began worshiping together in October 2024. In January 2025, the congregations officially voted to unite under the new name: Greater Vision Free Will Baptist Church.

What We Believe

God – We believe that God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Righteous Ruler of the universe. He has revealed Himself in nature, and in the Scriptures of the Holy Bible as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: yet as one God.

Jesus Christ – He is God’s unique Son; the only one of a kind. The Scripture teaches that He is God revealed in flesh. In His Divine nature He is truly God and in His human nature truly man. He is the One once crucified for man’s sin, the now risen and glorified Savior and Lord who mediates between God and man and who gives us access to the Father through His intercession. None can come to the Father unless they come through Him.

Holy Spirit – All of the attributes of God are ascribed to the Holy Spirit by the Scriptures. It is He who convicts and convinces men of their sin. He also convinces man of that which is right, and that a final day of judgment will come. He, it is, who comes to live in us at conversion, to open our understanding to the Scripture, and to lead us into the truth.

The Bible (KJV) – God used holy men to write the Scriptures. They are, in both the Old and New Testaments, the very words God intended us to have. They are, as given by God, without error and are our only rule of faith and practice. We profit from them by learning the truth about many things: they also speak to us about wrong doing; they even correct us and get us back on course as well as instructing us in right living.

Man – God created man in a state of innocence. Man, being tempted by Satan, yielded and willfully disobeyed God, becoming a sinner and incurring God’s judgment upon sin. All of Adam’s descendants inherit his fallen nature and thus have a natural inclination to sin. When one comes to an age of accountability, he is guilty of sinning before God and in need of salvation.

Salvation – Man receives pardon and forgiveness for his sins when he admits to God that he is a sinner, when in godly sorrow he turns from them and trusts in the work of Christ as redemption for his sin. This acceptance of God’s great salvation involves belief in Christ’s death on the cross as man’s substitute and the fact of God’s raising Him from the dead as predicted. It is a salvation by grace through faith and not of works.

Who Can be Saved? – It is God’s will that all be saved, but since man has the power of choice, God saves only those who repent of their sin and believe in the work of Christ on the cross. Those who refuse in this life to repent and believe have no later chance to be saved and thus condemn themselves to eternal damnation by their unbelief.

Gospel Ordinances – Free Will Baptists believe the Bible teaches three ordinances for the church to practice: Baptism in water by immersion, the Lord’s Supper, to be perpetuated until His return, and the Washing of the Saints’ feet, an ordinance teaching humility.

Resurrection – Free Will Baptists believe the Scriptures teach the resurrection of the bodies of all men, each in its own order; they that have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.

Christ’s Second Coming – The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ, who ascended on high and sits at the right hand of God, will come again to close the Gospel dispensation, glorify His saints, and judge the world.

Marriage – God’s design for manhood and womanhood is perfect and is clearly outlined for us in the Scriptures.  Men and women are made in the image of God and have complementary roles in the church and in the home. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. 

Stewardship – God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer’s cause on earth.

Baptism – Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

Communion – The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby those who have made a proclamation of salvation, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.