First Baptist Fort Lauderdale

Steve Florida

UPDATED - I became a Christian in this church in 1973 as a 17 year old high school student. I married my college sweetheart in 1980 and we attended FBC until 1986 when we moved to Virginia. I see a lot of 5-star reviews that list the amenities, the music, the parking the organ of all things etc. etc, but not as much on the pastor himself, or more importantly, his ability to preach from the Bible. From what I hear from friends that have attended since the 1980's, (many of whom have left) this pastor, James Welch has caused great division, attempted to "banish" members that have disagreed with him, and basically driven this once great church into the ground. It's so pathetic, and so sad. It's become such an issue in town that a local judge has even ordered the pastor to talk with dissenting members that he sought to banish. What kind of man is this anyway? His behavior sounds anything but Christian to me. If the current attendance is down to 200 from over 1,000, how can those who have been “banished” be in the minority? I’ve listened to a couple of his sermons, he sounds like a wimpy Joel Osteen, nothing like the past three pastors, Bill Hinson, O.S. Hawkins and Larry Thompson. Mr. Welch is no pastor, he's a predator. UPDATE : Things have gotten so bad here that the remaining 200 or so people can’t afford to pay the predator pastors $250K salary, much less the other staff and maintenance. Out of greed and desperation, this once great church has sold the property to a NY developer for well over $100,000,000. It’ll be a sad day for sure when they tear everything down because of one man’s catastrophic failure to replace it with yet another skyscraper. It took many generations to build this church, yet this disingenuous predator of a pastor was able to single-handedly destroy it within a year or two. I’d like to know what the search committee that chose him now thinks of their poor selection and their lack of due diligence and proper vetting of this fraud. The SBC needs to blackball him however they can to prevent him from destroying any more once great churches like this one. So pathetic.

Liz Waggoner

Nice people. Nice building. But the preaching is not good.

Shannon Wiseman

We LOVE our church! Our family moved to Fort Lauderdale from Charlotte and we couldn't be happier with our new church family. Pastor Welch and his wife Amy are such an inspiring team for God! Pastor Welch is an amazing teacher of the Bible! We have become inviters and everyone we bring loves the church service, and we even had one of our friends accept Jesus three weeks ago and now wants to get baptized! Praise Jesus! The welcomers and volunteers are so friendly and made us feel so good when we walked through the doors. Our family recommends this church because from the volunteers to Pastor Welch, the culture is so inviting and warm! We recommend First Baptist of Fort Lauderdale with all our hearts! Oh yeah, Anzeo and the worship team are so amazing, their love for Jesus comes out in every beautiful song they sing!

Candace Rogers

First Baptist Church Ft. Lauderdale has been our home church for 36 years. From the time you step on campus you will be greeted by friendly church members that would love to show you to a class or to the Service. The Sunday School classes are fabulous from birth to Seniors. I love that all ages study the same scripture each week . Parents and grandparents can discuss what they learned with their children each week after class. Sunday School starts at 9a.m. And is a time to grow deeper in God’s word and to fellowship with a lot of really nice people. The church service is awesome starting with great music!!!! And a wonderful sermon by Pastor James . We look forward in seeing you at church on Sunday! Can’t wait to get to know you.