April Sound Church sits at 67-1/2 April Wind South on the western edge of Lake Conroe, in the gated April Sound community of Montgomery, Texas. Many of its members and staff do not live inside the gates, however, because the church keeps a parking lot with its own entrance off Highway 105 open to everyone. The congregation describes itself as interdenominational and multi-generational, committed to three phrases that show up everywhere on the church's materials: Love God, Grow Together, Be The Church.

Two Services, Two Spaces

Sundays at April Sound Church revolve around two distinct services that share one mission. At 9:00 AM the stained-glass sanctuary fills with rich liturgies, classic hymns of faith, and a worshipful choir led by Worship Pastor and Choir Director Ingrid Deffenbaugh. At 10:30 AM the upper floor of the church's newer building, called the Worship Center, hosts a more casual contemporary service with modern worship songs and an engaging band led by Worship Pastor Terrell Mizell. Food and drink are welcome in the Worship Center, and the building is reachable by elevator. Both services run about an hour, and both follow the same preaching rotation, so worshipers can pick the style that fits them without missing anything else. Both services are also livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube for those who cannot attend in person.

Between services the Fellowship Hall opens with donuts and locally roasted, ethically sourced coffee. The break has become a small ministry of its own. The church calls the coffee the best in town and treats it as a chance to introduce newcomers to regulars.

First Wednesdays and Pray First Fridays

Two church-wide evenings anchor the rhythm of the month. First Wednesdays is a potluck dinner held on the first Wednesday at 6:00 PM. Attendees bring a dish to share and gather for an evening of food, fellowship, and connection that intentionally mixes people from the two Sunday services and visitors from the wider community. The church frames it as a recovery of the simple practice of shared meals that marked Jesus and the early church.

Pray First Fridays, held on the first Friday of every month at 6:00 PM in the sanctuary, gathers the whole church for focused prayer. A main prayer station and two secondary stations allow people to engage in several different prayer practices, lifting up the community and the world beyond it.

Sound Kids

Children are not an afterthought at April Sound Church, as the staff puts it: there is no junior Holy Spirit. The children's ministry, called Sound Kids, serves newborns through fifth grade in three age groups: nursery for ages 0 to 3, preschool for ages 3 to 5, and elementary for kindergarten through fifth grade. Sunday School meets at the 9:00 AM service and Kids' Church gathers at 10:30 AM, both with classes led by a Lead Teacher and a Helper. Kids' Church uses the Gospel Project curriculum, mixing upbeat worship, video-based Bible teaching, object lessons, crafts, and games.

Every Sound Kids volunteer passes a criminal background check and attends an annual training covering classroom safety, best practices, and child and youth abuse prevention. Between services, parents and children use a fenced-in commercial-grade playground behind the church. Sound Kids also runs a Wednesday evening Kids Bible Club at 6:30 PM, and the calendar fills in around the year with family-friendly events such as a Summer Kick-Off, Summer Camp, Fall Fest, an Advent Festival, a Pajama Movie Night, Promotion Sunday in August, and Vacation Bible School. The Sound Kids Ministry Director is Lauren Herrin.

Sound Youth

Middle school and high school students have a ministry of their own, led by Family Pastor Chance Cearley. The youth building, a white structure near the 105 parking lot, hosts the group's main weekly gatherings.

On Sunday mornings from 9:00 to 10:15 AM, students share breakfast and study the Bible together, following the same sermon series the adults hear in worship and discussing what it means for teenagers. Coffee and donuts follow at 10:00 AM, and many students move into the 10:30 AM service with the rest of the church. Wednesday nights from 6:00 to 8:00 PM bring food, fellowship, teaching, and small groups organized by gender and grade, with an emphasis on how Scripture speaks into everyday life. Thursday nights from 6:00 to 8:00 PM open the youth building as a Study Hall for homework, help, and the internet. Finally Friday, the last Friday of each month, fills the youth building with movies and games, and in the summer Finally Friday happens every week, with outings, service projects, and trips to fun destinations.

Helping Hands

The Helping Hands outreach ministry is the church's main expression of the Be The Church call. Its partners and projects reach across Montgomery County. Twice a month, Helping Hands teams prepare and serve food for the homeless population at Miracle City in Conroe, with food preparation on the first and third Monday afternoons and serving on the first and third Tuesday mornings. The ministry also partners with Montgomery ISD through Angel Tree to provide Christmas gifts for children in need, refers members to the Community Assistance Center for basic needs support, teaches and mentors prisoners on site through the Hope for All in Jesus prison ministry, and distributes donated bicycles and helmets to families who could not otherwise afford them.

The school partnership runs deeper than Christmas. April Sound Church recruits mentors for MISD's Project Impact program, hosts an MISD Mentor Program Training, and supports a New Teacher Luncheon and a Get Back to Work Day for faculty. A Helping Hands Charity Classic, held each fall at the April Sound Country Club, raises money for the ministry with a golf tournament and a barbecue dinner.

Pastoral Care and Prayer

Dave Schilling serves as the church's Pastoral Care Pastor, supported by a Care Ministry that visits homes and hospitals, makes care calls and writes cards, delivers monthly communion to homebound members, and coordinates meal trains and the church's 4 Love and Cookies team. The Prayer Ministry invites people to serve in three ways. Prayer Partners are available after each Sunday service to pray with anyone who has a request. The first Friday of every month brings the whole church together for Pray First Fridays in the sanctuary. A Prayer Chain Email sends urgent prayer needs for members of the congregation straight to subscribers' inboxes.

Small Groups: Connect Groups and CorGroups

April Sound Church runs two kinds of small groups at once, because Sunday worship alone is not the whole picture of Christian community the church wants to embody. Connect Groups are short-term groups that meet in the fall, winter, and spring around a DVD study, a book, or a Bible study. They are designed as a low-commitment on-ramp for newcomers and anyone looking to connect with God and a few other people. CorGroups are long-term groups that meet most weeks of the school year, take a rest during summer and major holidays, and follow a three-part rhythm drawn from 1 Corinthians 14:26, with a time of prayer (Love God), a Bible study in which every member brings a question, an insight, or a takeaway (Grow Together), and a closing conversation about who in the group and beyond needs help (Be The Church).

Current groups include Tracking with Jesus (Sundays 9:00 AM, studying the chronology of Christ's life), a 10:30 AM Adult Sunday Class through 2 Corinthians, Bible 101 on Thursdays at 6:00 PM, a Women's Group on Wednesdays at 10:00 AM working through a Bible recap, a Men's Bible Study on Thursday mornings at 8:00 AM in the Book of John, and CorGroups meeting on weekday afternoons and evenings in homes and on church property. New groups form seasonally.

Sound Women, Sound Men, and The Nest

The women's ministry, Sound Women, gathers women of all ages for a year-round rhythm of day and evening Bible studies, retreats, conferences, worship nights, service projects, movie nights, food and fellowship, and special events. Highlights from recent years include a Float and Fellowship outing and a Hats and High Tea gathering.

The men's ministry, Sound Men, is led by Daniel Clanton, a husband and father the men of the church asked to serve because of his integrity and commitment. The group focuses on monthly connection experiences such as worship nights, crawfish boils, and service opportunities, paired with yearly spiritual mountaintop events like conferences, retreats, and missions.

The Nest is a moms' ministry that gives mothers a place to connect, study, and find friendship as they raise their children.

Choir and the 9 AM Service

The 9 AM traditional service features a dedicated choir that sings from the main stage and contributes to a reverent and uplifting atmosphere. The choir holds a Vision and Interest Night periodically for anyone curious about joining, and the congregation hears from Lead Vocalists, Pianists, Instrumentalists, and Choir Members on the 9 AM Worship Team. The 10:30 AM Worship Team adds Band Lead Vocalists, Backup Vocalists, and additional Instrumentalists for the contemporary service.

Membership, Baptism, and Communion

April Sound Church holds a My Sound Church Membership Class on the last Sunday of every month from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. The class is the path into formal membership and covers who the church is, where it has come from, where it senses God leading, and how members help one another flourish. Baptisms are scheduled at various points in the year, with a Baptism Class offered ahead of each baptism. The church honors all major baptismal traditions, treating baptism as a public symbol of receiving Christ, dying and rising with him, and beginning a new life of faith. The Lord's Supper is celebrated about once a month, on the first Sunday of the month, as a means of grace in which the congregation renews its covenant and remembers Christ's sacrifice.

Beliefs in Brief

The church describes itself as interdenominational, leaning on the classic axiom: in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity. The nonnegotiable dogmas of the Christian faith are affirmed without wavering; important doctrines that shape Christian life are wrestled with thoughtfully and allowed some disagreement; and matters of preference are left open. The statement of faith confesses one God existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal and coeternal, who created all things visible and invisible. The Son, Jesus Christ, is fully God and fully man, was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, was buried, descended into Hades, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, from where he will come to judge the living and the dead. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, gives life, convicts the world of sin, enables repentance and faith, and sanctifies the church. The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are accepted as the inspired and authoritative Word of God. Salvation is by grace alone, received through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and that faith is evidenced in real-life change. The church is the Body and Bride of Christ, identified by the preaching of the Word, the right administration of the sacraments, and ordered community. All who genuinely profess Christ, in any denomination, are part of that one body for which he died. Eternity is real: the dead will be raised, those who belong to Christ to eternal life, and those who have rejected him to conscious punishment in the everlasting Lake of Fire.

A 50-Year Legacy

April Sound Church was founded in 1976, and the congregation marked its 50th anniversary in November 2026 with a celebration service in both Sunday gatherings, overflow seating in the Worship Center, testimonies spanning five decades, and a fellowship lunch on the patio. Five decades in, the church still leans on the same three phrases it points newcomers to today. Love God. Grow Together. Be The Church.