The Olive Baptist Church was begun in 1831, and at that time the property was in the state of Georgia. In 1872 the U.S. Congress designated this land to be a part of Florida. On Tuesday, November 22, 1853, in the Eleventh Annual Session of the Florida Baptist Association held at the Olive Baptist Church a resolution was passed that it was "proper, expedient, and practicable to form an Association, to be styled The Florida Baptist State Convention". William Brauner Cooper (1807-1878), a native of Abbeville, South Carolina, was one of the first missionary Baptist preachers in Florida. He and Olive pastor, William J. Blewett (1812-1873), a native of Anson County, North Carolina, were influential in the promotion of the idea of a new state convention. The convention was formed on November 24, 1854, at the home of Richard Johnson Mays near Madison. The Olive Baptist Church became a member of the Middle Florida baptist Association in 1993. In 2011 the Middle Florida Association had 32 churches and the Florida Baptist State Convention had over one million members with more than 2,900 churches and missions.
Comments 0 comments