On Sheridan Street in Hollywood, Florida, a steepled campus of brick and cedar shake has been a fixture of evangelical life in South Florida for more than sixty years. Sheridan Hills Baptist Church grew from a small mission gathering in the early 1960s into a multi-generational congregation with its own Christian school, a covenant membership process, and a network of small groups that reach into neighborhoods across southern Broward County. The church is committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, anchored in the truth of Scripture, and shaped around four core values: truth, worship, community, and mission.
That sense of rootedness shows up in the weekly calendar as much as in the theology. Sundays are structured around two gatherings. Growth groups and Sunday seminars meet across the campus at nine in the morning, followed by the main worship service at ten-thirty. Wednesdays add a second front door, with AWANA for children at six-thirty, and middle school, high school, and adult Bible studies all meeting at six-forty-five. A sprawling parking lot, lanyard-wearing welcome team members, and a bookstore open before and after services make the campus easy to navigate for a first-time visitor.
The Worship Center and the Roof Project
The church's Worship Center was built in the early 1970s, when Hollywood's population was expanding rapidly and new neighborhoods were spreading west of the original downtown. A Ministry Center followed in the early 1980s to host weekly meals, Bible studies, and church gatherings. For nearly fifty years those buildings have held thousands of Sunday services, school days, weddings, funerals, and holiday events. In March of 2025, after decades of Florida heat, humidity, and hurricanes, the church launched a $2.8 million roof renovation project to replace the original cedar shake mansards, upgrade the air conditioning units, and install new TPO roofing membranes across both buildings. The project is being completed in three phases, with the Ministry Center now finished and the Worship Center scheduled to wrap up in the fall of 2026. Gifts to the Capital Improvement Campaign are tax-deductible and can be given online.
Sunday Mornings: Discipleship Hour and Worship
Before the main service, the campus fills with smaller groups. Growth Groups meet in the Ministry Center third floor, the Chapel, the Chapel Wing, and the Worship Center second floor, each centered on a different book of the Bible. Sunday Seminars are longer-form classes lasting six, nine, twelve, or twenty-four weeks, organized into three tracks. The Grow track includes Starting Point, the membership class, alongside studies on spiritual disciplines and participation in the local church. The Know track covers Old and New Testament surveys, church history, and theology. The Go track focuses on practical ministry skills, including biblical counseling, missions, evangelism, marriage, parenting, and worldview.
At ten-thirty the congregation gathers for the main service. Through congregational singing, prayer, preaching, and giving, each service centers on Jesus Christ, with the goal of encouraging every eye to look to Him in every aspect of life. Sermons are expository and accompanied by detailed sermon notes that include blanks for listeners to fill in, along with a separate answer key. Recent series have walked the congregation through Genesis 1-11, with messages preached by Senior Pastor Andrew Coleman and Pastor Jason Hill on passages such as Genesis 12:1-4 and Genesis 1:1. Sermon audio and video are archived on the church's YouTube channel and made available through the Sheridan Hills podcast and a Spotify account.
Wednesday Nights: AWANA, Students, and Recharge
Wednesday evenings are designed for the next generation and for adults who want deeper Bible study. Children in kindergarten through fifth grade gather at six-thirty for AWANA, a Bible-memory program that pairs energetic games with small group teaching. At six-forty-five, middle school and high school students meet for their own Bible studies, and adults gather for Recharge, a parallel adult Bible study. Childcare is available from six-thirty, and the Bibles and Books Bookstore stays open so families can browse before and after the studies.
Children and Students
The children's wing runs from infancy through fifth grade, with a nursery for babies six weeks old through pre-K. Each nursery class focuses on foundational truths: that God made them, that God loves them, and that Jesus wants to be their friend forever. Children with special needs are welcome, and no registration is required; families simply check in when they arrive. Elementary care is offered at both nine and ten-thirty on Sundays, with Sunday school classes, worship activities, and Bible lessons designed to build a knowledge of God and His Word. AWANA on Wednesday nights provides the second weekly touch point for elementary-age children.
Middle school and high school ministries are coordinated by Pastor Ruben Hernandez. Middle school students meet on Sundays at nine and Wednesdays at six-forty-five, where they engage in Bible study, small group discussion, and faith-building activities. The high school program prepares students to integrate their Christian faith into daily decisions, with annual retreats and conferences that offer deeper exploration of faith and worldview. Recommended resources for parents and students include the ESV Student Study Bible, Shepherding a Child's Heart, and Age of Opportunity.
Starting Point and Covenant Membership
Covenant membership is the formal pathway into the life of the church. The journey begins with Starting Point, a twelve-week class led by one of the church's elders that explores God's plan of salvation, the history of Sheridan Hills, the significance of baptism, the church's core beliefs, and the meaning of meaningful church membership. Starting Point runs during the Sunday morning Growth Group hour from eight-thirty to ten in the morning, and the next scheduled class meets beginning January 10, 2027. Anyone may attend, including those simply curious about what Baptists believe.
Believer's baptism by immersion follows for those who have not yet been baptized. Prospective members then meet with one or two pastors for a membership interview, share their testimony, and discuss their understanding of church membership. The final step is a public affirmation of the church covenant during a Sunday morning worship service, where new members are received by a congregational vote. Members commit to one another to guard, care, submit, support, and minister together for the growth and unity of the church body, and to walk in Christian love, maintain family and private devotions, support the ministry financially, and pursue the salvation of family and friends.
Community Groups
Sheridan Hills envisions every covenant member developing meaningful, Christ-centered relationships with fellow members who live nearby. Community Groups are small gatherings exclusive to covenant members, designed for mutual care, encouragement, and collaboration in making disciples. The groups are organized geographically so that members can walk out their faith with neighbors. A booklet describing the current groups is available from the church office, and the pastoral staff can help members find the group closest to them.
Young Adults
The Young Adults ministry is for ages eighteen to thirty, both single and married without children. The group meets roughly once a month at a variety of locations, including church members' homes and the beach, gathering for games, food, conversation, prayer, and fellowship. The ministry also extends its outreach into the local community. Visitors are welcome, and bringing a friend who has not signed up is encouraged.
Missions and Local Outreach
The church's mission statement sums up its posture toward the surrounding world: win the lost, disciple the won, care for the fellowship. Local outreach is concentrated through partnerships with a handful of like-minded ministries. Hope Women's Centers provides support for women in crisis pregnancies. Sheridan House offers Christ-centered residential care for young men and families. Community Christian Counseling offers biblical counseling for those in need of emotional and spiritual support.
Globally, the church partners with the International Mission Board, the sending agency of the Southern Baptist Convention. Congregations are encouraged to engage in missions through three avenues: praying for unreached people groups, giving toward mission trips, and going on short-term mission trips. The church's recommended resources include the Joshua Project prayer guides and the people groups database, both used to focus prayer on the world's least-reached populations.
Beliefs
Sheridan Hills Baptist Church holds to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the confession of faith of the Southern Baptist Convention. The church teaches that the Holy Bible is God's revelation of Himself, totally true and trustworthy, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct and religious opinion should be tried. There is one true and eternal God, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, distinct in person but united in essence.
The church teaches that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and that it encompasses regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. The two ordinances observed are believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper, both understood as acts of obedience that symbolize the believer's union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. The church practices a regenerate church membership, with baptism as a prerequisite for taking the Lord's Supper and joining the church.
The church affirms that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, that children are a blessing from the Lord from the moment of conception, and that the office of pastor, elder, or overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. The church is congregational in polity, with each local body operating under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes, accountable to Christ as Lord.
The Pastoral Team
Andrew Coleman serves as Senior Pastor. He grew up at Sheridan Hills Baptist Church, became a Christian while a student at Florida State University, earned a Master of Divinity at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and previously served as a pastor in several states, planted a church in Florida, and worked overseas as an international missionary before becoming senior pastor in 2012.
Ben Nistor serves as Executive Pastor. He grew up in a church planted by Sheridan Hills, came to faith in his early teens through his grandmother's witness, earned degrees from Wheaton College and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and joined the staff with a particular focus on administration and ministry operations.
Jason Hill serves as Pastor of Family Discipleship, with oversight of the children's ministry and family discipleship pathways. William Lawler serves as Pastor of Worship, leading congregational singing and the music ministry of the church. Ruben Hernandez serves as Associate Pastor, with responsibility for middle school and high school ministries. Eric Spee serves as Headmaster of Sheridan Hills Christian School, the church's K-12 classical Christian school operating on the same campus. Gladys VanDesande coordinates the nursery ministry.
Sheridan Hills Christian School
Located on the same campus as the church, Sheridan Hills Christian School is a classical Christian school offering preschool through twelfth grade. The school partners with parents in nurturing students' faith and providing a biblically-grounded education across the grade levels. The school maintains its own communications, including a podcast that highlights the work of the faculty and the life of the student body.
Resources, Books, and the Bookstore
The Bibles and Books Bookstore is operated by the pastors of Sheridan Hills as a zero-profit ministry. It is open before and after services on Sundays and Wednesdays and stocks regular Bibles, study Bibles, journaling Bibles, Bibles in foreign languages, and child-appropriate readers. The selection of books is curated by the elders and covers parenting, marriage, family, singleness, practical Christian living, inductive Bible study, systematic theology, missiology, Christian history, apologetics, and classics. The bookstore carries hundreds of resources from the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors and the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation, and features authors such as the Puritans, Charles Spurgeon, J.I. Packer, John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, and others.
A separate Recommended Resources page points to podcasts, music, and ministry partners. Featured podcasts include The Briefing with Albert Mohler, Ask Pastor John with John Piper, Focus on the Family, Solid Joys Devotionals, Revive Our Hearts, The Bible Project, and Renewing Your Mind with R.C. Sproul. Featured music includes Sovereign Grace, City Alight, and Getty Music, with a curated Spotify playlist under the church's account.
Livestream, App, and Giving
The Sunday and Wednesday services are livestreamed on YouTube, with the live broadcast accessible through the church. A dedicated church app is available for iPhone, where members can register for events, watch sermons, and access church directories. Online giving is handled through PushPay and supports one-time gifts, automated recurring gifts, and non-cash gifts including stock, cryptocurrency, and estate contributions. Personal financial counseling is offered to members and is available through the church office. Checks may also be mailed or dropped off at the church address.
Planning a First Visit
For those planning a first visit, the church has gathered the basics in one place. Sunday morning worship begins at ten-thirty, with the discipleship hour and growth groups starting at nine. The Wednesday service begins at six-thirty, with adult and student Bible studies following at six-forty-five. Visitors are encouraged to arrive a few minutes early, especially on Wednesday, to check out the bookstore or meet others. Childcare is available on Wednesday starting at six-thirty, and parents are asked to remain on campus while their children are checked in. Parking is plentiful, with the east side of campus recommended for families with children. Dress ranges from business casual to jeans and polo shirts; the church encourages visitors to come as they are.
The office is open Tuesday through Friday from nine to five. The mailing address is 3751 Sheridan Street, Hollywood, FL 33021, and the phone number is 954-961-4250. For those moving to South Florida, the church has compiled a list of practical resources covering utilities, schools, libraries, hurricane preparedness, and transportation to help newcomers settle in. For those joining from outside the area, the church offers a separate pathway of online resources and encouragement to gather in person with a healthy local body wherever God has placed them.