Greater Mount Sinai Baptist Church
Founded: 1934
Address: 1243 West Blvd, Charlotte, N.C., 28208
Phone: 704-332-2163
Website: www.gmsbc.org
Membership: 1,500 – 1,700
Denomination: Baptist
Pastor: The Rev. George Cook Jr. (Since 1986)
Worship Services:
Sunday — 8 a.m. and 11a.m.
Sunday School — 10 a.m.
Bible Study — Thursday 7p.m.
Q: What makes your church unique?
One of the things that make our church unique is that we are striving to be a caring church. In other words, we want to care about our members. We want to care about folk who are around us in the community — in this immediate community and across town. We really care about them. We care about their financial needs, we care about their jobs, we care about their spiritual life, their spiritual well being, we care about their education. One of the things we push among our young people, more than anything else, is to get a quality education. When they do well in school we stand them up on Sunday morning, we name what it is that they’ve done, we give them a big round of applause. We’ve got a scholarship program here for them. So we care about people. In other words, we don’t talk it; we live it, from the pulpit to the back door.
Q: What is the church’s vision?
Becoming a full-time caring church that searches for the lost. The enrichment center that we’ve built allows us to do that. It allows us to have the kind of programs that will attract people and pull them in and let them know, not only do we care about your salvation, but we care about you.
Q: What are the church’s core beliefs?
We believe in God. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We believe in one baptism, and that is the baptism of the Holy Spirit — one faith and one baptism. We believe in the missionary thrust of the church, that we ought to do missions. And we also believe in evangelism — going out, deliberately searching for the lost and inviting them to come give their live to Christ.
Q: What ministries and programs are offered?
We have a long list of them. We have the athletics and recreation ministry. That’s the basketball team and an adult softball team. We also have care ministry. The care ministry is when people visit with us, we have a group of people who take them to the back and let them know how glad we are to have them and chat with them for about five minutes, find out some things about them, and get back in touch with them throughout the week. Then we have our music ministry. We have our computer ministry. Then we have our crown ministry. The crown ministry is different from other ministries because it not only teaches people how to tithe, it also teaches people how to sit down and make a budget. We also have God’s anointed dancers. We have a dance ministry that consists of adults. We have one that consists of children and smaller kids. We have a men’s ministry of all the men in our church. We have a lot more, pretty close 35-40 ministries
Q: What are the greatest strengths of the church?
One of the things I’ve sought to do ever since I’ve been here is to build a strong backbone made up of men, and we’ve got a large group of men who are working in our church. Most churches are filled with women and children and a few men. We have a men’s male chorus. We just have a large group of men. We sort of bend over backwards for men.
Q. How do you foster spiritual growth for individuals in the church?
We do that through Sunday school. We do that through Bible study. An associate minister and I are getting ready to put together a laymen’s institute where we can train the laymen over and beyond Sunday school and Bible study and set up certain things that they need to know, that they should know. That’s where we’re headed, and that’s also the need for the enrichment center.
