A Renewed Church on The Plaza
Plaza Church meets at 3321 The Plaza, on the edge of Charlotte's Plaza and NoDa neighborhoods. The congregation has lived in this part of the city continuously since 1938, when it was founded as Friendly Tabernacle Baptist Church. As the surrounding streets and storefronts aged, the church aged with them, but its commitment to the neighborhood did not fade.
On May 2, 2021, the congregation unanimously voted to partner with Hickory Grove Baptist Church for a new chapter of ministry. Through that partnership the church received a new pastor, a core team of new members, ministry resources, and physical upgrades to the building. Plaza described the moment as "experiencing organizationally what the gospel does spiritually" - receiving grace, regaining hope, and beginning a new start.
Sundays at 3321 The Plaza
Worship services are held on Sundays at 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM. Visitors arriving by car should enter the parking lots on Herrin Avenue, along the right side of the building. A parking team will greet them and direct them to a guest tent.
Each service is shaped around four commitments: verse-by-verse teaching, Christ-centered worship, a place where children can meet Jesus and make friends, and people ready to help newcomers step into community.
The music is described as modern worship that focuses on who God is and what God has done. The goal is for every person present to hear, sing, and share the gospel through song.
Plaza Kids
Plaza Kids is the church's children's ministry for children from 6 weeks of age through 5th grade. It runs every Sunday and is built around three commitments: helping children meet Jesus, helping them make friends, and serving parents by coming alongside them as they disciple their kids.
Each Sunday, children sing, dance, play games, and make crafts together while learning age-appropriate lessons about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. The lesson and activities are designed to coordinate with the sermon being preached in the Worship Center, so families are studying the same passage in different rooms.
Every Plaza Kids volunteer and staff member is vetted, background-checked, trained, and re-evaluated on an ongoing basis. A security team ensures that safety policies are followed throughout the morning. The check-in station sits on the Herrin Avenue side of the building, and volunteers print security tags for children and matching pickup tickets for parents. Families can pre-register online to speed up the process on Sunday morning.
Verse-by-Verse Preaching and Christ-Centered Worship
Plaza's preaching is gospel-centered and practical. Pastors walk through passages of the Bible verse by verse, connecting everyday life to the larger story of God. Jesus is always the main point and hero of every sermon, and the same passage taught to adults is taught in children's ministry in age-appropriate ways. Sermons can be watched on the church's YouTube channel.
The church teaches that human beings were created to find purpose, meaning, and satisfaction in God, but sin redirects that search toward idols that always over-promise and under-deliver. The worship gathering centers on thankfulness for what God has done in Christ and what God is doing in the world through the gospel - forgiveness, reconciliation, adoption, and transformation.
The Lord's Supper is observed during services on set Sundays, with members coming to the table to pray, confess sin, forgive others, and remember the grace they have received.
Community Groups and D-Groups
Plaza teaches that the gospel saves "me" to be part of a "we," and small groups are the primary way the congregation lives that out. Community Groups are made up of about 15 people who meet weekly throughout the city, usually in homes, but also in coffee shops, restaurants, and parks. Groups are coed, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational, and each is facilitated by leaders who have gone through assessment and training with Plaza.
Each week, Community Groups work through the previous Sunday's sermon and discuss how to apply it to their lives. Because sermons move through a text verse by verse, the groups are continually shaped by Scripture.
For those who want to go deeper, the church offers D-Groups - gender-specific groups of three or four people who meet regularly to grow as disciple-making disciples. D-Groups work through material on spiritual formation, Bible fluency, spiritual design, evangelism, relationships, understanding church, and leadership.
Plaza Pantry: Loving Neighbors with Food
Plaza Pantry is the church's main outreach to its surrounding neighborhoods. Each month, members donate specific food items that are packed into bags and delivered by a team to neighbors around the church. The pantry also distributes food and clothing in person at Plaza Terrace.
The pantry exists, in the church's words, "to love our neighbors and make a positive impact in our community." By meeting physical needs of food and clothing, the church says, it creates opportunities to address spiritual needs like forgiveness and reconciliation. Volunteers are invited to donate items, pack bags, and serve at distribution days.
Love God, Love Each Other, Love the World
Plaza summarizes its mission in three movements. Love God is expressed through gospel-centered worship, gathering to give thanks for what Christ has done. Love Each Other is expressed through gospel-centered community - Community Groups and D-Groups where believers are encouraged, marriages strengthened, and disciple-makers developed. Love the World is expressed through gospel-centered mission, sharing the gospel through the everyday rhythms of where people live, eat, work, and play.
Three values animate the life of the church. First, the gospel is the church's message and method - good news, not good advice, that connects belief to life. Second, people are the mission - the church seeks to be friendly and hospitable, meeting spiritual needs with the message of the gospel and physical needs with the compassion that the gospel produces. Third, God saves individuals to be part of a community; the church aims to be more than a Sunday church, but an everyday church with an everyday mission.
What Plaza Believes
Plaza follows the Baptist Faith and Message as adopted on June 14, 2000, the confession of the Southern Baptist Convention. The church treats it as a statement of generally held convictions and a guide to understanding what Baptists believe.
The confession covers the Holy Scriptures as God's revelation of Himself, totally true and trustworthy, and the supreme standard for faith and life. It affirms one living and true God in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. It teaches that human beings were created in God's image, fell into sin through free choice, and can be restored only by God's grace. Salvation, offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
A New Testament church, in this view, is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, governed through democratic processes, with two ordinances - baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper. The confession also addresses the Lord's Day, the Kingdom of God, last things, evangelism and missions, Christian education, stewardship, cooperation among churches, the Christian and the social order, peace and war, religious liberty, and the family.
Stewardship and the Legacy Initiative
Plaza teaches that everything Christians have is entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others, and that giving should be cheerful, regular, systematic, proportionate, and liberal. Online giving is available through the church's giving portal, and gifts can be dropped in the offering on Sunday morning or given by mail. The church has also partnered with the National Christian Foundation to receive stock gifts.
Members and friends may also give to the Legacy Initiative, a building and spiritual campaign launched after the 2021 relaunch with the goal of renovating the church's space as a hub for ministry in the church, mercy in the city, and mission in the world.
The Team
Brian Davis serves as Lead Pastor. Hunter Rosenberg serves as Groups and Care Pastor. Kyle Feeney directs worship. Victoria Dibble serves as Connections Director. Heather Bennett directs Plaza Kids volunteers.