Fred O. Pitts has been the Pastor of Ancient City Baptist Church since 2017. Although life in the 21st century is complex, he believes the purpose of life can be summed up more simply in the answers Jesus gave when asked the greatest of the commandments: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Pastor Fred says, “The primary call in my life is seeking first the kingdom of God through pastoring and teaching. My passion is teaching God’s word in a manner that is both understandable and relevant. Primary emphases in my ministry are compassion and encouragement.”

Pastor Fred is a native of Georgia and a graduate of Georgia Tech (Go Jackets!!) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has previously started a church in north Atlanta, pastored a church in central Georgia, worked as a consultant for starting new churches throughout Georgia, and most recently completed a pastorate of thirteen years in Decatur, GA.



Sermon on the Mount series BLACK small

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reveals to us the heart of God by helping us understand the heart of God's message to us. For too long, we got caught up in the letter of the Law rather than its spirit, and in this sermon, he not only clears up our understanding in so many ways, but he also gives us the key to understanding all of Scripture so that we might truly "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness"!

DiscipleLIFE series small

What does it really mean to follow Jesus? This series will help each one of us evaluate where we are in our walk with God, using a simple, memorable, and helpful model of "head, heart, hands, and feet." We should all experience balanced growth in each of these areas as we make our way through stages of development: "pre-birth, infant, growing, and mature." Message in this series are listed below...

Advent series Ill Be Home for Christmas

Truly, all of us have a desire to be "home." Think of all the songs of the season that reference home in one way or another. It is a longing of the human heart! In this Advent series, we will learn that we will never truly be home until we have been adopted into the family of our heavenly Father. Our messages will show the the grand story of what God has done and is doing in us! See the list of messages below...

Balance Message Series small

God calls us to a life of balance. There is often in the Bible a truth presented in one place and a balancing truth in another. Together, these balancing truths give us the boundaries for thought and action. At other times, imbalance in life comes through faulty understanding of life or God’s word or both. For the next few weeks we will look at some areas needing balance…

Dealing with Difficult Emotions small
God created us with powerful emotions. It should be no surprise that they are a big part of life for most of us. Remember the feelings you had when achieved a significant milestone in life or when you shared in the success of others? Think of some of your happiest days of life and the emotions the memories still conjure up within you! Positive emotions help make life worthwhile. But what about when our emotions bring difficulties to ourselves and/or those around us? How do we deal with these? In this four week series, we will look at how, as believers, we can deal with four emotions that can be difficult…

Basic Church series small

What does it mean to be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? As we welcome our new pastor, he will take several weeks to highlight what he calls "Basic Church."

Topics of general interest.

In this series, we look at a few of the characters we see surrounding the Christmas story: John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, and, of course, Jesus himself...

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40 Days of Sharing begins Sunday, January 27, 2019, and goes through Thursday, March 7, 2019. 

God has called us to be a community of faithhope, and love. But He doesn’t want us to keep our faith to ourselves. He wants others to enjoy the hope we have. He desires His love to be experienced by those around us. In short, we are called to spread this faithhope, and love; we are called to share with others how our lives have been changed! Most Christian want to share the good news with others. Many, though, don’t feel they confidence that they know how to go about it or what to say. All of are in need of practical encouragement. That’s what the 40 Days of Sharing is designed to be—practical encouragement to help you share Jesus in a natural, positive way.  The messages in this series complement forty days of devotionals that our pastor has prepared to help us in this journey of growing in this area of our discipleship.

“Late have I loved you, O beauty, ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.”

These words were written by Saint Augustine of Hippo in his Confessions around 400 A.D., speaking of his coming to faith in God ("O beauty") relatively later in life (in his 30's) after a lengthy search for meaning and truth. Ever Ancient, Ever New is a perfect theme for a church named Ancient City Baptist Church in the city of St. Augustine to use for our current Capital Stewadship Campaign. Yes, God is Ever Ancient, Ever New, and the same can be said for our church. We proclaim an ancient gospel in an ancient city and have relatively ancient facilities. But God speaks often in his Word about newness: “I am making everything new.” “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” “Sing to the Lord a new song.” We are to spread the ancient gospel to new generations. We must be Ever Ancient, Ever New! In this campaign, we are seeking God's direction in upgrading and repairing portions of our older facilities. We believe that such campaigns should be and must be spiritual exercises, and these messages help us focus on the making sure our facilities remain effective tools for worship, study, fellowship, and ministry.

God designed our families as the environment for living life! In our families, we give and receive love. In our families, we learn about acceptance, belonging, and forgiveness. In our families, we learn to take care of each other. And in our families, we learn so much more!

Strong families need strong marriages. How can we strengthen them?

Most families include children as well. It seems harder these days to raise godly children. Does God give us practical instructions?

Family matters to God, and even if we protest otherwise, family matters to us. Let us learn more about God's design for families from his Word to us. In this series, we will look at the following “family matters”: 

 April 28   What Every Child Should Know
 May 5  What Every Parent Should Know
 May 12  Why “If/Then Marriages” Don't Work (Mother’s Day)
 May 19  Maintaining Your Marriage 

Psalms for the SoulThe book of Psalms is the hymnal of the Old Testament—and it serves as such for us as well. It motivates us and leads us into praise for God. Yet, these words of faith also express honestly the human emotions we feel at different times as we look at the varied circumstances of our lives and as we relate to God within those circumstances—trust, doubt, joy, anger, praise, and more. During this summer, our pastor will be taking us through a few of these psalms, showing us again how timeless are the words of Scripture...

Life can be tough for us all. As Paul entered Philippi to preach the good news of Jesus, he was imprisoned. Once released, he started a vibrant church. Most of the members struggled financially, but faith in God gave them a generosity beyond their means. Later, Paul is imprisoned yet again—this time in Rome, awaiting the emperor’s ruling. As he writes a love letter to this special church, his main message to them is that, in spite of the circumstances of life, in Christ you can choose joy! This series will cover the entire letter...

Christmas is such a warm and wonderful time of the year. Our thoughts go to family and friends and gifts and more. But Christmas was God's idea. He was trying to tell is some important things. In this series, we explore some of What Christmas Tells Us About God...

December 01: "God Is FOR Us"
December 15: "God Is WITH Us"
December 22: "God Is ONE OF Us"
December 24: "God Is IN Us" (Christmas Eve Candlelight Worship)

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40 Days of Serving begins Sunday, January 26, 2020, and goes through Thursday, March 5, 2020. 

God has called us to be a community of faith, hope, and love. As such, we are to minister to one another, helping each other along the journey of life. But there’s more. He wants us to expand the community by sharing the message of faith in Jesus Christ with others and including them in our community. One of the most powerful ways of sharing the message of Jesus is by serving others in the Name of Jesus. Our world around us has heard enough “talk”—they need to see our faith in action that gives credibility and authority to our message. But how do we go about serving? That’s where the 40 Days of Serving comes in—it is designed to give biblical and practical help as we seek to grow in this area of following our Lord Jesus. This message series supports our 40 day emphasis.

Reset Back to Basics.narrow

The pandemic and other recent challenges have knocked many of our familiar supports out from under us. Life seems different and unfamiliar, perhaps fearful. Some are using this unique time to take a fresh look at what life is all about. And that can be good!

When a computer, program, app, etc., is behaving erratically, we hit the RESET button. We reboot. Sheltering in place has given us time to reflect and meditate. Some things are very wrong and some priorities have become misplaced in our world—and in our own lives. Let's hit the "RESET” button: let’s return to the biblical worldview given to us by God in the very beginning. Genesis takes us back to God’s intention and helps us understand who He is, who we are, what we are to do, the impact of sin, how we are to treat each other, and much more. Let’s RESET… for good!

Christmas According to.003 crop

What is Christmas to you? We all have our special traditions that help make Christmas meaningful. This year we will look at Christmas through the eyes of some biblical characters… 

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40 Days of Love begins Sunday, February 14, 2021, and goes through Thursday, March 25, 2021. 

When Jesus was asked to identify the greatest of all the commandments that God had given, He was not able to limit it to just one. This is what He said: “The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12.30-31).

But how do we love God? Our neighbors? Ourselves? That’s what the 40 Days of Love is designed for—to give practical encouragement in how to love God, others, and self according to God’s ideas of love! This message series supports our 40 day emphasis.

We all face many trials in our lives. James, the (half) brother of Jesus, shares with us in his letter very practical instruction how to endure and overcome as we encounter these various trials of life. You will be encouraged during this series as we think about our problems in view of  God's promises, how to face temptation, how to handle our anger, and so much more. James addresses both attitudes and actions in a style that is reminicent of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.