Church Founding: Tenth Anniversary

April, 1956........First Baptist Church, Lithia Springs is 10 years old. The above image shows Jewell and Arnold Patterson along with Marion and Ruth Beaver celebrating.

Valentine Banquet, 1956

In 1956, the church held a Valentine Banquet with the theme "P.S. I love you." The speaker for the evening was Rev. James Manley and the pianist was Eunice Rice.

If you want to see the images individually click on the slideshow. You will be taken to another page. Look for the blue link on the left with the words "view album." Click there and each images can be clicked to view individually.

First Baseball Team: 1956

This image was provided by Ron Couch for scanning.

Back row (left to right): Terry Gamel, Thomas Norton, Ronny Rainwater, Phillip Tinsley, Larry Butler, Ronald Couch

Third row (left to right): J.P. Leavell, Roy Frank Jordan

Second row (left to right): Wayne Vickery, Bennie Leavell, Bill Kerley, Bob Landrum, Ralph Jackson, Jones Bennett, Home Shackleford

First row (left to right): Jack Sinyard, Gilbert Rainwater, David Camp, Jack McNair, Tracy Smith, Mikey Shackleford

Click on the image for a larger view...

The History of Lithia Springs First Baptist Church: the 1950s

This is part two of the church history written by Irene Leavell and Vivian Cranford, members of FBCLS. Part one can be found here.

After the disasterous fire of 1949 a second sanctuary building was completed in August, 1951. As soon as the auditorium was completed and dedicated, the educational building was started on a pay-as-you-go basis.

In November of 1952, the Rev. J.A. Patterson resigned as pastor of the Lithia Springs Church and accepted the call of the Midway Baptist Church. The building program was moving along and the membership increasing steadily. For several Sundays the church had visiting speakers. Dr. George Brown served briefly as interim pastor.

In May, 1953, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the church called the Rev. Marion Beaver as their new pastor. He had recently graduated from the Southern Seminary and moved here from Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, Ruth, and their son, Mark.

The church contined to outgrow its facilities and in 1955, a building fund campaign was inaugurated to try to accommodate the growth. The Sunday School enrollment had reached 506 compared to 346 in 1953! Every available foot of space was being utilized. The two-year nursery was housed in a stairwell with no window or ventilation. The primary department used another stairwell. The Beginner Department used the furnace room with only one outside door for ventilation. Juniors and Intermediates shared what was designed for one Adult Department. Adult classes met in the partititioned balcony in the auditorium. Some classes met outside if the weather was agreeable.

In spite of the tremendous physical handicaps, the church continued to grow in all its areas of work. At this time, Mrs. J.M. Williams was employed as part-time church secretary and Mrs. Eunice Rice as part-time minister of music. The missions program of the church was projected to adopt a missionary with the church paying $1000 of her salary. The Foreign Mission Board suggested the name of Mrs. Ray Shelton, Missionary to Uraguay, whom [at the time of this writing] we still support.

The church celebrated its 10th anniversary at special Easter services in 1956. The young church had grown in membership from 24 to 510 in a decade. The property was then valued at $85,000. This included the main building and the basement of the new educational building. The Sunday School now had nineteen classrooms, four in the auditorium, one in the corridor, two in the stairwells, one in the vestibule, and one in the pastor’s study. Two stories of the new educational building were finished in early 1958.

On April 27, 1958, there was a service of dedication and open house. Another day of dreams come true! The pastor wrote in the program that “Through these past few years, the shadow of a partially completed building has hung heavily over us. But today we rejoice that by the mercy of God, we see our building completed.” It was already being filled to capacity and a new challenge of a larger building to take care of increasing needs was presented. The enrollments at this time were:

Membership – 593
Sunday School – 578
Training Union – 228
W.M.S. and Auxiliary – 115
Brotherhood – 50
Budget - $34,888.00