Rosedale Bible Church sits along Rosedale Highway on the northwestern edge of Kern County, a Baptist congregation organized around three words: Exalt, Equip, Edify. The church meets at 16000 Rosedale Highway in Bakersfield and runs a wide range of ministries aimed at building up believers through the preaching and teaching of Scripture, with a particular focus on bringing children, students, and adults into the same gospel-centered life.
Sunday Services at 10:30 AM
The Sunday worship service begins at 10:30 AM with congregational singing, Scripture reading, prayer, and verse-by-verse teaching from the Bible. The order is unhurried and centered on the preached Word, and visitors can expect an expository sermon that walks through a passage of Scripture rather than a topical talk. Services are livestreamed on YouTube for those who cannot attend in person.
Before the worship service, at 9:00 AM, the church gathers for the Equipping Hour in the Social Hall. Adults sit under extended teaching on topics such as How to Study the Bible, the Trinity, Man, Salvation, Angels, the Church, and End Times. Coffee and donuts are provided, and attendees are encouraged to bring a Bible and a pen to take notes. The current series is called Foundations of the Faith, with downloadable lessons and audio of each class available online.
What to Expect as a Visitor
The church describes its goal in plain terms: the ultimate aim of its services, classes, and everything else is to display the glory of God to all people. Visitors will find a gathering of sinners transformed by the gospel, being built up by the preaching of God's Word, sharing life together in genuine fellowship, praying, and encouraging one another. A cry room is available for mothers with small children and is accessed from the foyer up the stairs.
Families with children can check in at the welcome table, where a volunteer will help locate classrooms. Nursery is available for children from birth to age 3 and is located in the children's ministry building. Children ages 3 through 6th grade are dismissed to Children's Church after the time of congregational singing. Kids are also welcome to remain in the worship service with their parents.
A Focus on Children's Ministry
Children's Ministry at Rosedale Bible Church exists to evangelize children, encourage parents, and edify the servants who serve them. The church partners with parents in the work of training children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
The Sunday morning program is built around three age-appropriate rooms:
- Nursery (birth to 3 years) during the 10:30 AM worship service.
- Sunday School (9:00 to 10:00 AM) for ages 3 through 6th grade, using the Answers in Genesis curriculum to build a biblical worldview and confidence in the inerrancy of Scripture.
- Children's Church (10:45 AM to 12:00 PM) for ages 3 through 6th grade. Children sit with their parents in worship and are dismissed after the music for teaching, snacks, crafts, and activities using the Generations of Grace curriculum, which walks through God's redemptive plan in a way that every age learns the same lesson each week.
On Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, children ages 3 through 6th grade meet for Adventure Club, a mid-week program built around Bible memorization, teaching, music, and games. The Adventure Club curriculum walks through systematic theology in a family-integrated way, so every child engages the same central truth, memory verse, and theological application.
Safety is taken seriously. All children from nursery through 6th grade participating in Sunday or Wednesday Children's Ministry must be checked in and out by a parent or guardian. A written Children's Ministry Handbook outlining the church's policies is available for any parent who wants to review the procedures.
Student Ministry for 7th through 12th Grade
The youth ministry serves junior high and high school students, partnering with parents to see youth transformed by the gospel and growing in their love for Jesus and His Word. Through instruction in the Word, students are taught to mature in their faith, serve others, and develop godly relationships. The ministry also incorporates games and activities designed to maximize fun and fellowship.
Students meet in two weekly settings. On Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM, they gather for fellowship and teaching from God's Word. On Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, they meet again for fellowship, teaching, and game time. The student ministry also runs an annual summer camp.
Adult Ministries Built Around the Word
Adults at Rosedale Bible Church have multiple regular touchpoints with the Word of God and with one another.
Growth Groups meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 8:30 PM in the fall and spring. These are small groups for edification, encouragement, and prayer, designed to give adults a smaller circle for the kind of life-on-life ministry that the larger Sunday gathering makes difficult. While adults are in Growth Groups, the church runs nursery (birth through age 2), Adventure Club (ages 3 through 6th grade), and Youth Group (7th through 12th grade) so that the whole family is covered.
The Equipping Hour on Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM in the Social Hall is the second main adult teaching time. The current series, Foundations of the Faith, follows a 20-lesson arc through the church's doctrinal convictions, with downloadable study guides and audio for every lesson.
Two men's ministries meet on Friday mornings in the Youth Room. Men's Leadership Training gathers on the 1st and 3rd Fridays from 6:30 to 8:00 AM for instruction in topics such as Biblical Leadership, Spiritual Growth, Bible Knowledge, and Systematic Theology, with coffee and a light breakfast provided. Men of Prayer gathers on the 2nd and 4th Fridays from 6:30 to 7:30 AM to pray for the pastors, elders, and church family, as well as for the nation and the lost who need to hear the gospel.
The Rosedale Ladies Fellowship meets on the 1st Thursday of every month from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM in the Sewing Room for a day of quilting, sewing, serving, fellowship, prayer, and a potluck meal.
A Gospel-Centered Vision
The church has defined its purpose, mission, and vision with unusual clarity. The gospel purpose is to bring glory to God by magnifying His name in the world; the boldest theme of Scripture and the highest purpose of the church is to glorify the triune God, and Jesus has given that purpose to His church.
The gospel mission is carried out in three directions:
- Exalting the God of the Gospel through meaningful, Spirit-filled worship, individually and corporately.
- Edifying the Saints through the Gospel by faithfully preaching and teaching the Scriptures, cultivating and training qualified church leaders, patiently and persistently discipling one another, and exercising spiritual gifts for the benefit and building up of the body of Christ.
- Evangelizing the Lost with the Gospel by fulfilling the Great Commission, making disciples, and proclaiming Christ to every person.
The church's stated gospel vision is to see people hungry for the Word of God, sacrificially caring for one another, and desperate to reach the lost.
Statement of Faith
Rosedale Bible Church teaches a historic Baptist faith. The church affirms the verbal, plenary inspiration and inerrancy of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as the supreme and final authority in faith and life. It confesses one God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It teaches that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, true God and true man, who died for man's sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, rose bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven where He now serves as the believer's High Priest and Advocate.
The church teaches that a sinner is declared righteous by faith in Jesus Christ alone, that salvation is by grace through faith and not by works, and that all who repent and believe in Christ receive forgiveness through His blood. Believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper are observed as the two ordinances committed to the local church. The church teaches a premillennial eschatology with the imminent, personal, and visible return of Christ.
A longer What We Teach document, approved by the Elders and available as a PDF online, walks through the church's doctrinal convictions in detail. The church also teaches that all human life is sacred and created by God in His image, and that God has instituted marriage as the union of one biological man and one biological woman.
Sermons and Preaching
Sermons are a regular and central part of the church's ministry. The current preaching calendar has worked through a long series on the Gospel of Mark, with 47 sermons in that series, plus 12 other expository messages and a short series on the Old Testament book of Isaiah titled The Promise of the King. Most sermons are preached by Senior Pastor Ace Davis, with Family Pastor Jeren Wentworth regularly contributing expository sermons of his own.
Every sermon is available with both video and audio, and audio can be downloaded as an MP3 directly from the sermon page. Recent series titles include Help My Unbelief! on Mark 9:14-29, Christ's Explanation about Elijah on Mark 9:9-13, Getting a Glimpse of Glory on Mark 9:2-8, It's a Fact: Christ Is Returning on Mark 8:38 to 9:1, and The Mission of the Messiah on Mark 8:31-33.
Leadership
The church is governed by a plurality of elders who also serve as the pastoral team.
- Ace Davis serves as Senior Pastor and Elder. He grew up in Oxnard, met his wife Sarah at the University of Idaho, and was married in 2007. After serving as an associate pastor in youth and music ministry, he attended The Master's Seminary and graduated with a Master of Divinity in 2017. He served at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and then as Senior Pastor of Faith Bible Church in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, for five years before being called to Rosedale Bible Church in August 2025. He and Sarah have four boys.
- Joel McCoy serves as Worship Pastor and Elder.
- Jeren Wentworth serves as Family Pastor and Elder.
- Dick Meyer, Brad Sorensen, Tim Williams, and Paul Hirst serve as additional Elders.
Questions for the elders can be directed to elders@rosedalebiblechurch.com. Lesley Andersen serves as the church's Administrative Assistant.
Becoming a Member
The church believes that membership in a local church is vital to the spiritual growth of every believer. Visitors who have attended for more than a few weeks are encouraged to pursue membership so they can discern whether Rosedale Bible Church is the church God would have them join.
The membership process has four steps: register and attend a membership class, fill out a membership application, complete a membership interview with an elder, and come before the congregation to take the Right Hand of Fellowship after agreeing to the Affirmation of Commitment. The membership application is available as a PDF, and the next class can be registered for through the church's online events page.
Giving and Contact
Giving can be done online through the church's Church Center platform, by mailing a check to 16000 Rosedale Hwy, Bakersfield, CA 93314, in person with cash or check, or by using a bank's Bill Pay service to avoid the online processing fee. The Church Center app is available on app stores under the church's name. The office can be reached by phone at (661) 589-3305 or by email at admin@rosedalebiblechurch.com.
The church's calendar, including ministry events and upcoming registrations, is kept up to date online and is also available as an embedded Google Calendar. Social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube keep visitors connected to the latest sermons and announcements.
Rosedale Bible Church's ministry is grounded in the conviction that the Bible is the Word of God, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for salvation, and that the local church is the ordinary means by which God exalts His name, equips His people, and reaches the lost.