One of Gainesville’s oldest and largest churches celebrated a legacy of service, love and inclusion this weekend.
First Baptist Church celebrated a unique 150-plus-two birthday Saturday and Sunday in northwest Gainesville with a vintage car show, children’s bounce houses, fellowship and food.
“This celebration allows us to think about our history and think about what all the people who have come before us have left as a legacy,” said Harriet Spangler, the organizer of the event, who is also a member of FBC for 50 years. .
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The church recognized its 150th anniversary in 2020, but due to the COVID pandemic, it had to delay the celebration event for two years.
Founded five years after the Civil War in 1870, FBC started with a congregation of 14 members when Gainesville was still a small frontier town.
Several years later, in 1897, the church moved to a building near what would become the University of Florida campus, establishing a long-lasting relationship with UF faculty, staff and students .
“One of the unique things about First Baptist Church in Gainesville has been its interaction with the university system from the very beginning,” said Lynn Williams, who recently retired as FBC’s minister after 16 years of service. .
Now located west of I-75 at 39th Avenue, FBC is home to more than 800 members and often serves the community through a variety of outreach and missionary programs, including the International Learning Center, which teaches English as as a second language to members of the international community and UF Students.
Throughout its history, Williams said FBC has been instrumental in diversity and inclusion.
“FBC was very welcoming to international students and we were one of the first churches to have African-Americans in our church body who could actually speak from the pulpit,” he said.
Beyond that, Spangler said FBC has an inclusive history of women ministers, which is a controversial issue among many congregations of various denominations.
Women have served as deacons since 1987, and in 1998 the first black woman deacon was elected, according to information on the FBC website.
During Saturday’s celebration, attendees could be seen enjoying a variety of food while staff members gave tours of the facility.
Gayle and Brandon Ambrose of Snowie of Gainesville were giving out free snow cones and said they were happy to be a part of the celebration. Brandon, a Levy County sheriff’s deputy, has operated Snowie alongside his mother, Gayle, for the past 15 years.
The church’s immaculate campus includes a large sanctuary, a children’s and nursery department, a prayer garden, nestled under a 400-plus-year-old massive oak tree, and a half-mile meditation circle with scripture signs and benches .
The event also featured several rows of pristine vintage cars with some models dating back to the 1920s.
FBC says it has had 23 senior pastors, their tenures ranging from 10 days to 26 years, and the ministers have had varying educational backgrounds.
Currently, Dr. Ray Johnson serves as interim pastor.
“Anything that starts in those days (after the Civil War) is worth remembering,” Johnson said. “We want to celebrate what this church has meant to the members and the Gainesville community over the years.”
