Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC) is a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

megachurch A megachurch is a church with a very large membership that also offers a variety of educational and social activities. Most megachurches are Evangelical, although the term denotes a type of organization, not a denomination. A megachurch draws 2 ...

in Lynchburg,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, located on the campus of

Liberty University Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...

, which it founded and is closely affiliated with. In 2016, a church spokesperson stated they had an average weekly attendance of 9,000. The pastor is Jonathan Falwell, the son of previous Senior Pastor

Jerry Falwell Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservatism in the United States, conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch ...

and brother of former Liberty University President, Jerry Falwell Jr. In addition to a second campus, Dan River Church, Thomas Road also hosts a Spanish congregation on its main campus. It is affiliated with the

Baptist Bible Fellowship International The Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI) is a conservative Baptist Christian denomination. It is headquartered in Springfield, Missouri. History The Fellowship was founded during a meeting at Fort Worth in 1950 by a group of 100 pasto ...

and the

Southern Baptist Convention The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestant, and the second-largest Chr ...

History

Began in 1956 by a group of thirty-five members, including

, Thomas Road now claims more than 24,200 members. The first meeting of Thomas Road was held on June 17 at Mountain View Elementary School. On June 24, 1956, The church held its first service in what was the former Donald Duck Bottling Company building. In 1964, Thomas Road moved into its second auditorium that seated 1,000 people. In 1969, the church broke ground for two educational buildings plus a new 3,000-seat sanctuary. In 1971, the church founded Lynchburg Baptist College, now known as

, as well as Liberty Christian Academy in 1967 (known as Lynchburg Christian Academy until it moved and was renamed in 2005). Until 2004, the church was the location for a nationally syndicated religious broadcast known as '' The Old-Time Gospel Hour''. This program now airs only locally in Lynchburg. Selected sermons from the pulpit of the Thomas Road Baptist Church are now featured nationally on a syndicated program from Liberty University known as ''Live from Liberty''. The church occupied a new multimillion-dollar facility on July 2, 2006. The new building is connected to an over facility formerly owned and operated by GE and Ericsson Mobile Communications to manufacture mobile phones and other telecommunications equipment. The existing building has been renovated to house offices, university classes, the new Liberty University School of Law, and the Liberty Christian Academy. The church offers a variety of events and speakers, such as a creationist conference by

Answers in Genesis Answers in Genesis (AiG) is an American fundamentalist Christian apologetics parachurch organization. It advocates young Earth creationism on the basis of its literal, historical-grammatical interpretation of the Book of Genesis and the Bib ...

. Founding pastor Falwell served as its senior pastor until his death on May 15, 2007. In a special business meeting called by the board of

deacons A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

on June 3, 2007, Jonathan Falwell was unanimously elected by the

congregation Congregation may refer to: Religion *Church (congregation), a religious organization that meets in a particular location *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administrative body of the Catholic Church *Religious congregation, a type of religious instit ...

to assume his father's duties as senior pastor of the church. Jonathan Falwell had previously served as the church's executive pastor since 1994.

Affiliation

Thomas Road Baptist Church was initially affiliated with the

. However, since 1998, it has a dual affiliation with the Baptist Bible Fellowship and the

, having entered the convention by way of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia.

Controversies

Jerry Falwell started Lynchburg Baptist College by selling bonds to a small group of private investors. However, in 1972, the

Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

investigated the bonds alleging Falwell's church committed "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in unsecured church bonds. The church won a 1973 federal court case prosecuted at the behest of the SEC, in which the court exonerated the church and ruled that there had been no intentional wrongdoing. In 1989,

told Liberty University employees that membership in the church and

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or ...

were mandatory. Associated Press
Falwell Mandates Tithing and Church Membership for All of His Employees
latimes.com, USA, March 11, 1989

References

External links

* {{coord, 37, 21, 27, N, 79, 10, 24, W, display=title Southern Baptist Convention churches Baptist churches in Virginia Churches in Lynchburg, Virginia Christian organizations established in 1956 Evangelical megachurches in the United States Megachurches in Virginia 1956 establishments in Virginia Jerry Falwell Liberty University Brick buildings and structures in Virginia