Historic Gainesville church celebrates 150th anniversary following two-year COVID delay

One of the oldest and largest churches in Gainesville celebrated a legacy of service, love and inclusion this weekend.

First Baptist Church celebrated a unique 150 — plus two — anniversary in Northwest Gainesville on Saturday and Sunday, featuring an antique car show, children’s bounce houses, fellowship and food.

“This celebration allows us to think about our history and to think about what all the people that have come before us have given as a legacy,” Harriet Spangler, the event organizer said, and who also has been 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, had to delay the celebration event for two years.

Established five years following the Civil War in 1870, FBC started with a 14-member congregation when Gainesville was still a small frontier town.

Several years later in 1897, the church moved into a building near what would become the University of Florida campus, establishing a long-standing relationship with UF faculty, staff and students.

“One of the things that’s unique about First Baptist Church in Gainesville, has been its interaction with the university system from the very get go,” said Lynn Williams, who recently retired as a FBC minister after 16 years of service.

Now located west of I-75 off 39th Avenue, FBC is home to over 800 members and often serves the community through a variety of outreach and missionary programs, including the International Learning Center, which teaches English as a second language to international community members and UF students.

Throughout its history, Williams said that 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 form the pulpit,” she said.

Beyond that, Spangler said that FBC has an inclusive history of women ministers, which is a controversial issue among many congregations across a variety of denominations.

Women have served as deacons since 1987, and in 1998 the first Black female deacon was elected, according to information on FBC’s website.

During Saturday’s celebration, attendees could be seen enjoying different foods, while staff members gave tours of the facility.

Gayle and Brandon Ambrose, of Snowie of Gainesville, were offering free snow cones and said they were thrilled to be participating in the celebration. Brandon, a Levy County Sheriff’s Deputy, has operated Snowie alongside his mother, Gayle, for the past 15 years.

The immaculate church campus includes a grand sanctuary, a children’s and nursery department, a prayer garden — located under a massive oak tree that’s over 400 years old — and a half mile meditation circle walk with scripture signs and benches.

The event also displayed several rows of pristine antique cars with some models dating back to the 1920s.

FBC says it has had 23 senior pastors, their tenures lasting from 10 days to 26 years, and ministers have had varied educational backgrounds.

Currently, Dr. Ray Johnson serves as interim pastor.

“Anything starting in those days (following the Civil War) is worth remembering,” Johnson said. “We want to celebrate what this church has meant to the members and the community of Gainesville over the years.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: First Baptist Church of Gainesville celebrates 150th anniversary