A Liturgical Baptist Parish in Old Lake Highlands
Lake Highlands Baptist Church meets at 642 Brookhurst Drive in Dallas, on the eastern edge of the Old Lake Highlands neighborhood near White Rock Lake. A congregation of the Southern Baptist Convention, LHBC is distinguished among Dallas-area Baptist churches by its commitment to historic liturgical worship, weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper, and observance of the Christian year. With a roster of teaching pastors, an active children's and teen ministry, an attached preschool, and partnerships that span Dallas, Texas, and several continents, the church presents itself as a parish-shaped community that seeks to honor the broad Christian tradition while remaining rooted in a Baptist identity.
From South Park to Brookhurst Drive
LHBC traces its origins to a group of Christians who met in the South Park School of Dallas to organize a new congregation. The church was first known as South Park Missionary Baptist Church, then later as Forest Avenue Baptist Church. In 1959 the congregation relocated to the Old Lake Highlands neighborhood and adopted the name Lake Highlands Baptist Church. The Brookhurst Drive campus has been the church's home ever since.
Long-tenured members remain part of the pastoral team. Lay pastor Tom Wakefield, who joined LHBC in 1969 and was elected a deacon in 1979, has served on church building programs and multiple mission trips to indigenous communities in Colombia. The continuity of such membership helps anchor a congregation that has grown into a teaching church with a plurality of pastors.
Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical, Baptist
LHBC describes itself as a Baptist church rooted in the Great Tradition of the Christian faith. The congregation's self-understanding is summarized in four labels: orthodox, Protestant, evangelical, and Baptist.
Orthodox, because the church affirms the doctrine of the Trinity and the full divinity and humanity of Christ as confessed by the early church. Protestant, because it stands in the Reformation tradition and emphasizes that Scripture alone is the supreme authority for Christian faith and practice, and that sinners are justified by faith alone in Christ's finished work. Evangelical, because it stresses personal conversion, the authority of the Bible, the centrality of Christ's atoning death on the cross, and active gospel witness. Baptist, because it is a community of baptized believers practicing congregational governance, affirming local church autonomy, and cherishing religious freedom for all.
The statement of faith is the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, the confession of the Southern Baptist Convention. The creeds recited in worship are the Apostles' Creed (used during baptismal services) and the Nicene Creed (recited weekly following the sermon). LHBC practices believer's baptism by immersion as a prerequisite for church membership and the Lord's Supper. Communion is celebrated each Sunday as a central act of worship, with bread and the fruit of the vine shared by the whole congregation.
Several additional practices mark the church's culture: historic liturgical worship, weekly communion, radical hospitality, a plurality of pastors (elders), encouragement of women to teach and lead outside the office of pastor, and a deliberate effort to support rather than replace parents in the discipleship of their children. The church cooperates with the Southern Baptist Convention, Texas Baptists, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and the Dallas Baptist Association.
A Two-Part Liturgy of Word and Table
Sunday at LHBC follows a two-part pattern shared across much of the Christian family: the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Table. Small groups meet on campus at 9:00 AM in a classroom-style format. The congregation then gathers for worship at 10:30 AM.
The order of worship begins in silence and a call to worship, moves through prayer of adoration, hymns of praise, confession of sin and assurance of pardon, Scripture readings from Old and New Testaments, prayer for illumination, sermon, profession of faith, and prayers of the people. The liturgy of the Table that follows includes the offering, prayer of thanksgiving and the Lord's Prayer, the celebration of Holy Communion, a hymn of dismissal, and a sending blessing. The Nicene Creed is confessed each week after the sermon.
The church's description of its worship is unusually explicit. Worship is meant to be scriptural, Trinitarian, participatory, formative, reverent and joyful, ecumenical and traditioned, sacramental, and missional. The aim, the church writes, is not simply to conduct a meaningful service but to become a people shaped by the gospel.
Printed worship guides are prepared each Sunday, including the Scripture readings, the order of worship, sermon notes, and announcements, and they are also available online. Recent sermons are archived, and the Life at LHBC podcast offers extended conversations with pastors and members.
A Plurality of Pastors
LHBC is governed by a plurality of pastors (elders) who share leadership and accountability. The pastoral team includes Senior Pastor Bill Watson, Associate Pastors Winston Hottman and Noah LaHaye, and lay pastors Chris Kloepper, Bryan Cortimilia, Dan Nale, Drew Davenport, Matt Severance, Tom Wakefield, and John Wiley.
Bill Watson became Senior Pastor in October 2020 and has been a member of LHBC since 2011. A two-time graduate of Criswell College with a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies and a Master of Divinity in Historical and Systematic Theology, Watson focuses on preaching, prayer, and personal pastoral care. He lives in Lake Highlands with his wife and four children.
Winston Hottman joined the pastoral team in 2022 after more than a decade in higher education. He holds a PhD in theology from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and helped found the Center for Baptist Renewal, a network of orthodox evangelical Baptists working to retrieve the Great Tradition for the renewal of Baptist faith and practice. He oversees the small group ministry and the discipleship of new believers and members.
Noah LaHaye moved to Dallas in 2016 to attend Criswell College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies and a Master of Divinity. He joined the LHBC pastoral team in 2021. In addition to general pastoral responsibilities, he oversees the children's and teen ministries and the deacon ministries.
The lay pastors bring diverse backgrounds to the elder team. Drew Davenport is a Dallas native and high school French teacher who has been a member since 2017 and a pastor since 2024. John Wiley and his wife Nancy came to LHBC in 2018 after his retirement from full-time ministry; he had previously served as a career missionary with the International Mission Board in Brazil. Bryan Cortimilia is a long-time member since the early 1990s who also serves as the church's Director of Facilities.
Music for the Liturgy
Worship music at LHBC is led by Music Leader Katherine Colburn. A graduate of Moody Bible Institute who grew up in East Dallas, Colburn joined LHBC as worship leader in August 2020. She shapes the hymns and songs that frame the liturgy each week.
Children, Teens, and a Preschool on Campus
The children's and teen ministry is designed to support, not replace, parental discipleship. Programming is offered for every stage from birth through high school.
For children from birth through fifth grade, Sunday School classes are provided during the 9:00 AM small group hour. Children's worship for ages birth through three is offered during the 10:30 AM worship gathering; older children are welcome in the worship center with their parents. On Wednesdays from 6:00 to 7:00 PM, childcare and discipleship activities for children birth through fifth grade run alongside adult Bible studies. Safety procedures and volunteer screening and training are in place, and the church maintains a check-in desk for the children's ministry.
Middle school and high school students have their own Sunday small group at 9:00 AM, opportunities to participate in the Wednesday evening Bible studies, monthly boys' and girls' fellowships hosted in the homes of approved members, and three retreats each year in spring, summer, and fall. Past retreats have included canoeing the Buffalo River, backpacking in Colorado, overnight retreats at Mt. Lebanon Camp, and service projects with local ministry partners. The aim is to help teens remove distractions and focus on the cultivation of Christian habits, godly discussion, and relationship building.
Kid Connections Preschool shares the LHBC campus and is led by Tara Titsworth. The preschool operates as a ministry of the church and is open to families from the wider neighborhood.
Small Groups and Discipleship Classes
Small groups meet on campus on Sunday mornings from 9:00 to 10:00 AM in a classroom-style format. They center on three practices: Scripture and prayer, Christian fellowship, and hospitality. Groups are also encouraged to open their lives and homes to neighbors, coworkers, newcomers to faith, and the overlooked or marginalized.
Sunday-morning catechism classes for newer believers rotate through five core studies: The Story of Salvation, the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ordinary Means of Grace.
Wednesday evenings at 6:00 PM offer two eight-week sessions in spring and two in fall, with summer classes that are shorter and stand-alone. Past topics have included book-by-book Bible studies, the creeds, church history, parenting and marriage, Christian biographies, hospitality, evangelism, and Christianity and the arts.
Personal discipleship pairs a more seasoned believer with a newer one around habits of discipleship, with the goal of growing in Christlikeness. Those who provide personal discipleship on behalf of LHBC must be members in good standing.
Pastoral Care and the Deacon Body
Pastoral care at LHBC is shared among the pastors, deacons, and lay members who visit the hospitalized and homebound. Pastors are available to provide comfort, counsel, and prayer in times of joy and sorrow. Members may request prayer, hospital visits, home visits, and the anointing of the sick (drawn from James 5:14), in which the pastors pray over the ill and anoint them with oil. Communion may also be shared at home visits when appropriate.
Deacons oversee a range of practical ministries: preparing and distributing the Lord's Supper, ushering, distributing benevolence funds to those with pressing financial needs, counting offerings, greeting, providing audio and visual support, ministering to the homebound, serving members with a variety of needs, and coordinating churchwide picnics and fellowships. Each area of service is overseen by a deacon and an assistant deacon.
Walking the Christian Year
One of the distinctive features of LHBC is its observance of the Liturgical Year, the centuries-old rhythm of seasons that follows the life of Christ. The church provides resource sections for Advent and Christmas, Epiphany, and Lent, with Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time forthcoming.
Each season is paired with curated music, books, podcasts, and family activities. Advent resources include Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God and the Choir of King's College, daily devotionals by Paul David Tripp and Jonathan Gibson, and a family devotional by Marty Machowski. Epiphany resources include a music playlist featuring John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers, Fleming Rutledge's Epiphany: The Season of Glory, and Tomie dePaola's The Story of the Three Wise Kings. Lenten resources include Bach's St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, Allegri's Miserere, and a Lenten Season Playlist curated by Music Leader Katherine Colburn.
Missions in Dallas and Beyond
LHBC partners with a number of organizations to extend the work of the church beyond its own walls. Local ministry partners include the Gideons, the White Rock Center of Hope (a nonprofit providing food, clothing, financial aid, and encouragement to neighbors in crisis), Thrive Women's Clinic (offering free pregnancy services and counseling), and For the Nations Refugee Outreach (serving refugee families resettling in the Dallas area).
International partners include the Baptist Seminary of Madagascar, established in 2022 by Mandimby and Tiana Ranaivoarisoa to provide academic theological training for Malagasy church leaders, and Elliots Bridge, a missions organization founded by Sharon Fairchild that connects churches and volunteers with global ministry partners.
LHBC also hosts the Colson Fellows Program in partnership with the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, a ten-month journey of spiritual and intellectual formation that trains believers to see all of life through the lens of Scripture. Colson Fellows-in-Training deepen their understanding of the whole biblical story, learn to recognize the formative power of competing worldviews, develop habits of discernment rooted in Scripture, and grow in clarity about their calling and stewardship.
Covenant Membership
Membership at LHBC is understood as a covenant, a meaningful promise made before God and with one another. Membership is open to all baptized Christians who have made a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ and who can affirm the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith along with the church's covenant.
The membership process typically takes about two months and includes attending LHBC regularly, participating in a Membership 101 class, submitting an application, interviewing with a pastor, and being nominated by the pastors and affirmed by the congregation. Members commit to regular worship participation, obedience to Scripture, service within the church, and financial support of the church's ministry.
Plan a Visit
Worship services are held on Sundays at 10:30 AM, with small groups meeting on campus at 9:00 AM. Wednesday evening Bible studies and discipleship classes meet at 6:00 PM. The church is located at 642 Brookhurst Drive in Dallas, with handicap parking available near each entrance and reserved first-time guest parking by the main doors. Visitors are invited to come as they are, whether in a suit or shorts. More details for guests are available on the visit page.
Children from birth through fifth grade have Sunday School during the small group hour and children's worship during the main gathering; older children are welcome in the worship center. During the Wednesday evening hour, childcare is provided for children birth through fifth grade. The church office can be reached at info@lhbc.com or (214) 327-7393.