Since 2007

Rhema Word of Faith International

Building Lives. Changing Generations. Advancing the Kingdom.

A Bible teaching church on Skyview Drive in Lakeland, Florida, led by its founder, Dr. HB Holmes.

Who we are

Our faith and our church

Dr. HB Holmes founded this church in 2007. Everyone is welcome to worship with us and hear the Word of God. Our faith is in Jesus Christ, and the Bible guides what we believe and how we live.

We teach the Bible in a way you can use on Monday. That is the whole idea. Not ideas to admire, but something you can carry into a week of work, bills and family.

Our mission, in the words we have used for years:

to know Him and make Him known.

To Know Him and Make Him Known

This is our mission in our own words.

At Rhema Word of Faith International, our mission is to lead individuals into a transformative relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We are dedicated to practical, Bible-centered teaching that empowers everyone to cultivate daily communion and fellowship with God.

Know Him

We are committed to do everything we can to bring people into a meaningful relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This includes practical teaching so that Christians know how to commune and fellowship with God on a daily basis.

Philippians 3:10 (AMP): "For my determined purpose is that I may know Him that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly..."

Make Him Known

Jesus is the head of the Church, and we make up His Body. Through the Church (that's you) Jesus is revealed to those who are lost and without hope. We are called to reach out and rescue those who are held captive by sin.

Matthew 28:19 (NKJV): "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

You can read what we believe in full. It is eight short statements and it takes about two minutes.

Men sitting in a circle of chairs in the fellowship hall with open Bibles on their knees, one speaking while the others listen.

Our history

2007. The church was founded in Lakeland and filed with the State of Florida on 5 July 2007. It began small.

2011. The name changed to Rhema Word of Faith International, to say out loud that the work was not going to stay inside one building.

Since then. The church added broadcast studios and a fellowship hall, and started putting its teaching out on the air as well as from the platform. Today there are nine weekly shows, a daily prayer call, a food pantry, a strength class for older adults, and a Sunday service that goes out live.

Dr. HB Holmes

Founder and Pastor.

Dr. HB Holmes founded this church and still pastors it. He has spent more than twenty years teaching the Bible, and he teaches at the Sunday service.

He is also the reason this church sounds different from the one down the road. He has built broadcast studios into the building, put nine weekly shows on the air, and made a Bible trivia game called Faith IQ that children and youth groups actually want to play. The phrase people use about him is Urban Visionary. He would probably rather you came on a Sunday and made your own mind up.

He has written a book, "Executing God's Plan".

What we are like on a Sunday

There is singing, and it is not quiet. There is teaching, usually from Dr. Holmes. People say amen out loud. At some point somebody will ask if you want prayer, and you can say no.

Nobody will single you out, ask you to stand up, or put you on a mailing list. If you want to slip in at five past eleven and leave at the end without speaking to anyone, that is a completely normal thing to do and we will not chase you.

If you are thinking about coming, plan your first visit has the address, the timings and the things people are too embarrassed to ask.

The congregation standing and singing during a Sunday service, some with hands raised, in a room lit by daylight through side windows.

The four things we say we are about

These four lines are on our own flyers, and they are a fair summary.

Real people, real community
Biblical truth, real life
Stronger families
Greater impact

Beyond the building

The teaching here does not stop at the parking lot. There is a prayer call every weekday at seven in the morning that anybody can dial into. There are nine shows a week, made by people from this church, watched by people who live nowhere near Lakeland. And there is a food pantry that hands groceries to about fifty families twice a month, whether or not those families ever come to a service.