The First Baptist Church of Jacksonville is a large Southern Baptist church located in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. With its current membership at 28,000 and with an average attendance of around 7,500 for Sunday services, it is the third largest church in the Southern Baptist Convention. First Baptist Church has its origins in the oldest Baptist congregation in Jacksonville, Bethel Baptist Church, established in 1838. The church experienced a period of considerable growth in the mid-20th century, and now encompasses eleven square blocks of downtown Jacksonville. Several former pastors, including Homer G. Lindsay, Jr. and Jerry Vines, were widely influential in the Southern Baptist Convention, leading it in both growth and a shift towards conservatism and fundamentalist Christianity.
Read more about First Baptist Church Of Jacksonville: History
Famous quotes containing the words baptist and/or church:
“You should approach Joyce’s Ulysses as the illiterate Baptist preacher approaches the Old Testament: with faith.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it is All Souls’ Night.
And two long glasses brimmed with muscatel
Bubble upon the table. A ghost may come;
For it is a ghost’s right....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)