Our Senior Pastor
The Reverend Ron McDugle, marking his 36th year of pastoring at First Baptist Danville, has ministered at one church longer than any other pastor of the Indiana Fellowship of Regular Baptist Churches (IFRBC). Since August 1971, when he and his wife Jan, began their ministry at the five-year-old Danville, church plant, he has developed this body around the philosophy that Christ is building His Church through local bodies worldwide.
Pastor McDugle grew up in a Christian home in Pontiac, IL, accepting Christ as his personal Savior at camp at the age of nine. He graduated from Cedarville University in May, 1965, and earned his Master of Divinity degree from Grace Theological Seminary in May of 1968. His first pastorate was at the Meadowbrook Baptist Church of Lima, OH, where he served three years before coming to Danville.
A widower, Pastor Ron, as he is affectionately known to his congregation, is the father of three children and the grandfather of six.
In his capacity as pastor/mentor, Pastor Ron has been assisted in the past 30 years by five youth pastors, three of them now senior pastors of their own congregations. He has welcomed many more student pastors to summer internships, several of them FBD members.
He's reached out beyond his own pastorate to serve on the IFRBC Council of 12, the IFRBC Camp Board, and as a board member for the Baptist Children's Home.
Keenly interested in missions, Pastor Ron has taken opportunities to preach and teach at missionary institutions in the Philippines, Jamaica, and India. He's encouraged an interest in missions in his congregation also and overseen the doubling and tripling of support for missionaries in the last twenty years.
Pastor Ron McDugle - Senior Pastor |
On December 31 of 2005 Pastor Ron and Donna were married here at First Baptist Danville. Both have sons in ministry who jointly performed the ceremony. "You may tell your father he may kiss my mother!" was just one of many memorable moments of the afternoon. Pastor Ron and Donna reside at the church parsonage and are excited about their ministry together with their church family. |
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pastorron@firstbaptistdanville.com
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Our Office Staff:
Our Doctrine
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We believe in:
- The Bible - is the complete inspired Word of God
- The Trinity
- The Virgin birth
- The eternal Deity of Jesus Christ and His humanity
- The spiritual lostness of man
- The substitutionary atonement and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ
- Salvation by saving faith in Jesus Christ alone
- Baptism by immersion, not for salvation, but for obedience and identification
- The physical return of Jesus Christ
- The resurrection of both the saved and the lost - the lost are resurrected to eternal damnation in hell and the saved to eternal life with Jesus Christ in Heaven
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Our History
January 16, 1966, twenty-five people signed a charter and constituted themselves to be the First Baptist Church of Danville. Thus, under the shepherding ministry of Rev. Leon Rowland, First Baptist Church was established. Through much prayer, excellent leadership, hard work, and the gracious help from friends and sister churches, First Baptist Church grew and matured. During the Rowlands five year ministry in Danville, a great number of people were added to the church and the facilities were painted and improved.
In 1971, Ron McDugle accepted a call to serve as pastor. In 1974 it was evident that a major change of facilities was necessary. Ground was broken on May 7, 1978 and the first services were held in the new building on May 20, 1979.
Today we stand before our God as witnesses of His faithfulness. His sustaining grace has made possible the facilities and ministries by which we spiritually profit. To God be the glory - great things He hath done!
Who We Are
Related to our Mission
Discipling
- We believe that Christ is the head of the church and that its members are baptized believers of all ages.
- We attempt to follow Ephesians 4:11-13 believing that it is the role of pastors to train the laity so that the laity may do the work of ministry. So we attempt to build people and then support them in doing ministry. As a result we have many ministry skilled lay leaders within the congregation.
Loving
- Our goal is to love God and others to his glory. We speak the truth in love. Our deacon groups attempt to compassionately meet needs of members within the group. We aspire to show love to the community through good works that might create opportunities to share Jesus Christ.
Mission/evangelism
- The body desires an effective evangelism outreach. Our theme is “Pointing People To Christ”. We are growing in our consideration of greater involvement with our community. Acts of goodwill are planned to project to our community that we are a caring fellowship.
- Our facilities are used for evangelistic programs like Awana for youth and a basketball league for junior and senior high youth.
- Global outreach is attempted through the regular support of twenty-eight missionary families and nine agencies; support of special projects such as Central Indiana Crisis Pregnancy projects; and through the sending of mission teams from within the congregation. Our mission budget comprises approximately 18% of the general budget. Time is provided each Sunday morning worship hour for a report from, and prayer for, a missionary. We are pleased to be the sending church for two families.
Growth
- Though attendance has plateaued, there is a desire for evangelistic growth. Danville is a growing community and therefore one would expect the church to grow as well. Yet our methods are tempered by our pursuit to be a “healthy” church.
Youth and Child Focus
- Great attention is given to the evangelism and mentoring of children and teens. We have had a second pastoral staff member since the late 1970’s devoted to this work.
Related to our core beliefs:
Doctrinal Stance
- We are established on the conviction that the Bible is God’s living and timeless word. Consequently, our mission is to focus on teaching and making disciples in all that we do. We are aware of the dangers of both legalism and lawlessness. We seek balance rather than absorption upon any one doctrine. We are not ecumenical with unbelievers. We believe that separation is primary rather than secondary in practice.
- We believe that serving is a role for believers rather than a stepping stone unto salvation for unbelievers.
Bible Translations
- While the NIV is the translation used from the pulpit, the congregation is encouraged to explore and benefit from the many good translations available. We recognize that paraphrases are not translations but good Christian literature. We reject as erroneous and divisive the idea that the KJV is God’s favored translation and all the rest are Satan’s.
Related to our polity:
Church Polity
- We are committed to congregational government. Deacons and trustees are elected annually but after three years the men step down from serving in those capacities.
Financial
- We are financially conservative, using our collective spending/saving as a model to our individual families. When in debt for building programs we have paid off the debt early.
Giving
- Giving to the general fund is good although during the last three years attention has been needed in order to meet our budget. Special offerings reflect a giving spirit within the people. A recent Thanksgiving offering of $40,000 was received to be distributed for eye-care in Asia; orphans in S. Africa; scholarships for Jamaican Bible school students; and for our own building program. These cross cultural projects arose as a result of our mission teams’ ministries in those areas.
Related to our preferences:
Innovative/traditional
- We have a history of accepting change yet are not concerned about being trendy or chasing fads. We believe that whatever methods we choose for outreach, they be grounded and supported in our conviction that God brings life through his word and strength through prayer.
- We function best when there is a well thought-out and prayed-through vision that is cast and kept before the people. The deacons and congregation look to the pastor for that vision.
- We do not have a stringent dress code but encourage those on the platform and teaching to dress respectfully and modestly.
Assembling
- We attempt to educate ourselves through Sunday school programs from infants through adults. We meet for worship and instruction in the morning service. Our evening services are somewhat body life oriented where mission teams report; missionaries and other guests speak; communion is observed; music programs and other events occur. Once a month (in place of a Sunday evening Service) we meet for home-church with a deacon leading for the purposes of meeting spiritual, social, and material needs in a family setting. Midweek we offer Awana programs for children, junior and senior high meetings, and adults meet for Bible study and prayer.
- We regard our meeting with one another to be an important command of the Spirit written in Hebrews 10: 25.
- Ladies ministries are available.
Congregational Worship Style
- We worship in music by a blending of hymns and contemporary songs. We seek to find a balance in the tastes of the various generations.
Children’s civic education
- The church is supportive of each parent’s choice for public, private, or home school education. There are Christian schools nearby. We have plenty of land should we want to start a school on our campus though that is not a burning issue. We have opened our gym to home school groups through out the school year.
Related to our people and community:
Demographic
- Our congregation is basically middle class and Caucasian because the Danville area consists of the same. We reject racism and annually hold an evening service with an Indianapolis church that is basically made up of African-Americans.
- Our people probably are conservative politically. We reject abortion as an option for expecting parents. We are engaged in the cultural war but try to be politically neutral from the pulpit.
- The church is made up of members from several surrounding communities such as Plainfield, Brownsburg, Pittsboro, Avon, and Heritage Lake. These towns are bedroom semi rural communities of Indianapolis’s Westside.
- We have had at least two college students choose Moody, Cedarville, Taylor, Baptist Bible College of PA, and Grace College for Christian college education.
