About

Flat Creek is a cooperating Southern Baptist Church serving our Lord Jesus and the Lynchburg community since 1831, recently celebrating 180 years of continuous service.  We are a missional church actively engaged in a number of missions outreach on the local, state, and national levels.

Our vision is simply to engage the commands of the Great Commission:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

- Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)

The Flat Creek Baptist Church fulfills the Great Commission by educating God’s people in the Holy Scriptures and exposing them to the wonderful legacy of 2000 years of Christian church history. Jesus Christ identified true disciples as one who will “deny himself, take up his cross and follow me” (Luke 9:23). To this end Flat Creek makes disciples through expository preaching and teaching of the truth of God’s word. 

We are an incomparable school of life learning to glorify the grace and majesty of Jesus Christ in everything we do!

  • Earnest G. Carey Jr.

    LEAD PASTOR

    Earnie serves as the Senior Pastor of Flat Creek Baptist Church. His educational background includes Mechanical Engineering Technology from Central Virginia Community College and Pastoral Theology from Liberty Bible Institute. Earnie retired from Flowserve Limitorque after 37 years in a variety of increasing responsibilities, ranging from Test Engineer to the Director of Product Management. Earnie has also been involved in church ministry nearly 50 years – teaching as a Staff Evangelist while in school at Liberty, church planting in Texas, and Associate Pastor for Education at Lakewood Baptist Church in Lynchburg. An avid reader of theology and church history, Earnie is married to Robby, and they have ministered together with the church of God that resides at Flat Creek since 1995, which has been one of the great joys of their lives. They are blessed with two daughters and their husbands, and the Lord has gifted them four delightful grandchildren.

  • Vance Matthews

    ASSOCIATE PASTOR

    Vance serves as the Associate Pastor to Students and Families at Flat Creek Baptist Church. Vance received his B.S. from Campbell University in 2006 and his M.Div. from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2010. He and his wife, Stacy, served for 2 years in Asia teaching English as a Second Language while also sharing the Good News. Vance has also served as Minister to Students in Lynchburg and as Pastor in North Pole, Alaska. His passion is to proclaim the scriptures and true doctrine, teaching others how to read and understand the scriptures. Much of Vance and Stacy’s down time consists of walking their hound mix, Marlin, around the neighborhood, and they recently welcomed their first child, Lydia, in 2022.

  • Mike Rudder

    MINISTER OF MUSIC

    Mike serves as the Minister of Music of Flat Creek Baptist Church. His educational background includes a BA in Elementary Education and MEd in Curriculum Development and Administration from the University of Lynchburg. As a now retired public school educator, Mike previously served Lynchburg City Schools as an elementary teacher for 12 years and elementary principal for 17 years completing his career as the Director of Elementary Education and School Improvement. Mike has been leading church music for nearly 50 years while serving the Lord in three churches. In addition to his love for Christian music, Mike is involved in the teaching ministry of Flat Creek, co-teaching median adults expositionally throughout Scripture. Mike is married to Sheila and they have ministered together at Flat Creek for almost 35 years, having found a church home to raise their family in answering God’s call to music ministry. Mike and Sheila are blessed with one son and his wife and one daughter and her husband. They are further blessed with two grandsons and one granddaughter.

Associations