Everyone is welcome
Weather you live in our area or are just visiting Please come and worship with us.
Tis
said that "every institution" is but the lengthened shadow of a
man" (or woman). For the Citra First Baptist Church that man was Mr.
H.B. (Howard Barney) Stevens. In December of 1876, Mr. Stevens brought his
bride to a two-room cabin on a four-acre site. At that time Florida was
sparsely settled and Baptist were "few and far between."
In
1880 Baptist friends of Mr. Stevens in the North contributed financially
and soon a meeting house with an adjacent parsonage was provided. The
original church building consisted of one room with three windows on each
side, and seated about 100 people. By 1893 the membership had outgrown the
original building so a new house of worship was erected which forms the
main part of the present edifice on U.S. 301 in Citra. The new house of
worship contained a baptistery, an unheard of innovation as that time.
This
building was planned and constructed under the leadership of Mr. Stevens
and was dedicated debt-free at the cost of about $3,000. The architecture
of the church is a nostalgic reminder of a by-gone era of the Old South.
After many years, Sunday School classrooms were added. Then in 1956 the
dining and fellowship hall was built.
The
two-story five-room parsonage had a stable for horse and carriage. This
was furnished for the pastor, plus $600 per year as salary. This was much
more than most churches provided at that time. Other contributions were
vegetables, feed for the pastor's horse, firewood for the stove, meat,
eggs, cornmeal, potatoes, cane syrup, and other farm products. During the
early period (prior to 1895) there was no "passing the plate" as
all the churches finances were taken care of through a general offering
once a month.
The
First Baptist Church of Citra, one of the 12 original churches forming the
Marion Baptist Association, has had a long list of pastors, starting with
Rev. Stevens to our current pastor Rev. Craig Jacobs.
Please help us preserver this historic building by making a tax deductible donation.
