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First Baptist Church Reaches Heavenward

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 21, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - On a sprawling piece of land off Trouble Creek Road, between walled-in subdivisions and heavily congested roadways, a church is rising from the earth.

It has taken years, but First Baptist's new house of worship is nearly completed.

Thursday morning, a small group of parishioners gathered outside the towering structure to watch construction crews install a steeple, a viable sign of progress.

"We're looking to be in there by Easter," said the Rev. Guy Sanders III, who took over the congregation several years ago. "But we've still got a long way to go before we're finished."

Construction of the $11 million church is being paid for with loans, grants, donations and proceeds from the sale of the old property to the city last year, Sanders said.

The new facility, on which work started earlier this year, eventually will be expanded into a megachurch with a massive sanctuary to accommodate more than 3,500 worshippers.

"We're building for the future," the minister said.

First Baptist boasts one of the oldest congregations in west Pasco.

Some 85 years ago, those first parishioners, who numbered fewer than 100, held the first service in a small rented hall behind the former Snell Building on Main Street. They were citrus farmers and ranchers, bankers and store owners; some of the oldest family names in the county.

Membership swelled quickly and eventually the hall was too small.

They needed more room.

They needed a house of worship.

So church leaders cobbled together some money, bought land overlooking Orange Lake and built the New Port Richey First Baptist Church.

The first Sunday service in the Adams Street location was July 4, 1926.

Since then, the congregation has grown into one of the city's largest, with nearly 1,500 worshippers filling its pews with song, prayer and praise on Sunday mornings.

And the brick and mortar home is too small again.

The story of First Baptist is similar to other houses of worship in the city and across the state, many of which have outgrown their often humble foundations.

Sanders said the lack of parking and auxiliary space at Adams Street has been the biggest challenge. There's room for only 96 cars on the property. The new church will have nearly 600 parking spaces, he said, with room for more.

For now, the congregation is leasing the old building from the city, which bought the property two years ago or $3.1 million, for worship and other purposes.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.

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