First Baptist Church Athens — Church Directory

Quick Facts

Pastor — the shepherd God holds accountable Matt Marston

Founded Unknown

Denomination SBC

Service Times Sunday mornings

Men's Ministry No

Kids Ministry Yes

Website firstbaptistathens.org

Pastor Credentials SBC pastor

10-Point Theological Scorecard

Christology

Is Jesus the only way? (John 14:6)

BFM2000 orthodox

Strong

Scripture

Inerrancy affirmed? Final authority?

Inerrancy affirmed

Strong

Men's Discipleship

Intentional formation for men?

Ministry categories list children/youth/college/adults but no men's ministry — verify in person.

Caution

Soteriology

Faith alone? How is salvation presented?

Grace through faith

Strong

Gender / Biblical Design

Biblical manhood and womanhood by God's design — patriarchal, complementarian, egalitarian, or affirming gender ideology?

Prior 'women in ministry roles' statement not re-surfaced on homepage fetch but remains in batch evidence. Red holds.

Pastor Matt Marston leads; About page explicitly affirms 'women in ministry roles'

WARNING!

Leadership Structure

Male elders/pastors? Accountability?

Pastor-led with deacons

Strong

Preaching Style

Expository or topical/therapeutic?

Pastor Matt Marston confirmed; specific sermon style not detailed on About page — verify in person.

Caution

Mission Clarity

Great Commission central?

SBC missions

Strong

Cultural Alignment

DEI/CRT language? Social justice crowding out gospel?

Mission framed around Micah 6:8 'act justly, love mercy' with emphasis on affirming and 'learning from various Christian traditions' — social-justice-forward framing.

WARNING!

Accountability Structure

Denominational home, elder plurality, or external network — is the pastor answerable to anyone?

Homepage fetch did not surface CBF partnership statement directly; prior batch evidence of CBF partnership on About page stands. Black-tier rating holds pending re-verification.

Disqualifier

Assessment

SBC church in Athens, GA. Cooperative program participant.

#athens#georgia#national#sbc#batch-3

Sources & Evidence

Enrichment Notes

Existing score_note flagged 'SBC vs CBF alignment verify' — confirmed CBF, not SBC. Rating upgraded from yellow to red.

These are the URLs consulted to arrive at this church's scoring. Score-note claims are synthesized from homepage content, denominational directories, and public statements of faith at the time of review. Church websites change frequently; we're progressively adding Internet Archive snapshots to prevent link rot.

[1] Archived snapshot web.archive.org/web/20251214005347/https://firstbaptistat…
↳ Snapshot of firstbaptistathens.org (live link)
[2] Archived snapshot web.archive.org/web/20251008040509/https://firstbaptistat…
↳ Snapshot of firstbaptistathens.org/about/ (live link)

Transparency note: MOOP ratings are researcher judgments about publicly available theological and ecclesial evidence. They are not infallible. If a church's public posture has changed since our review, or if we've mis-read evidence, tell us — we publish corrections.