Winter Garden church celebrates 75 years

WINTER GARDEN — When members of the new Ninth Street Church of Christ gathered in the 1940s for a group photo outside the wooden church, two people present for the special occasion were Sally Lofton and Georgia Morgan.

On the first Sunday in December 75 years later, Senior Minister Xerxes Snell recognized the east Winter Garden church’s anniversary. As part of the celebration program last month, he honored six members, ages 70 and older, who have long been a part of the church — including Lofton and Morgan. Other pioneer members recognized were Florida Pinder, Earnestine Brown, Loretha Jefferson and Betty Cooley.

Four of the six were there for the anniversary celebration; Pinder and Morgan live in nursing homes and were unable to attend.

The two-day homecoming program, called “75 Years Under the Son,” included musicians, lunch and a time of togetherness. Scrapbooks chronicling the church’s history were on display. The city of Winter Garden presented Snell and his congregation a proclamation to commemorate the occasion.

“(The weekend) was basically all about appreciating those who had gone on before us so we could do the things today that we are able to do,” Senior Minister Xerxes M. Snell said of the Dec. 7 program. “We are able to be a successful church today because of those who made sacrifices and did all the things necessary a long time ago to make us what we are today.”

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Ninth Street Church of Christ works closely with the East Winter Garden Community Development Corporation, reaching out to the community and its neediest members. Through this partnership, the church and CDC provide food baskets and vouchers during the holidays and regular clothing drives.

“All the projects the CDC is involved in, our church helps with funding and volunteers,” Snell said. “Our work is more concentrated in the poor area of Winter Garden, pretty much in east Winter Garden, where a lot of residents (have income) at or under the poverty level.”

Church volunteers often participate in home-improvement projects, where they go into residents’ homes and fix or replace what is broken. They concentrate on the community’s elderly population and citizens with disabilities.

“Community service is a passion of mine,” Snell said. “Jesus ministered to the needs of the whole person (physical and spiritual). We partner with the East Winter Garden Community Development Corporation because of its mission to empower residents of this community to live a better quality of life. There is a lot to accomplish in the east Winter Garden community, and we want to be a part of the progress that helps residents move from dependency to self-sufficiency and help the community thrive as it did in the past.”

Snell, a native of Fort Lauderdale, has served at the Winter Garden church for 13 years. He and his wife of 22 years, the former Carol “Alisa” Chapman, have two sons, Joshua and Jordan.

“I feel like I minister to the greatest congregation on the face of the earth,” Snell said. “The members of our congregation are the most loving, caring and giving people I’ve ever been around in my 21 years of ministry. We reach out to everyone with the love of Christ and strive to demonstrate that love by how we treat each other and our fellow man.”

HISTORY

The Ninth Street Church of Christ was established in August 1939. Following the commandment given in Matthew 28:19, 20 — “Therefore, go and make disciples …” — brothers from the Ocoee Church of Christ were instrumental in bringing the gospel to the east Winter Garden area. O.T. Starling, Lew McEwan, L.B. Chastain and B.B. McCormic were supportive of the church’s early work, and to demonstrate their commitment, they donated blocks that were used to build the first church building in 1941.

Starling brought Brother John Vaughner of the 20th Street Church of Christ and Brother F.L. Thompson of the Liberty City Church of Christ to the Winter Garden area. These pioneers held tent meetings in an effort to convert people in this area. The Ocoee, West Orange and Jefferson Street (now Concord) Church of Christ supplied financial support for the tent meetings, Bibles, chairs and other needs.

Some of the first converts who obeyed the gospel under the teaching of Vaughner were Sisters Mildred Dixon, Florence Brinson and Dorothy Williams. Other Christians who attended under Thompson’s leadership were Brother Saber Chisolm and Sisters Ollie Smith and Pauline Stringer. 

Attendance at the yearly gospel meetings resulted in increased membership. Baptisms for the new converts were held in Black Lake, south of West Colonial Drive, in Tildenville.

In the early years, members worshipped in a rented building on the corner of Ninth and Center streets. The congregation moved to its second location, 115 Ninth St., in January 1980. 

In June 2004, the church broke ground across the street for a new sanctuary. Two months later, the baptistery’s heat pump caught fire and the sanctuary was destroyed. The building was leveled and rebuilt as a multi-purpose facility. Construction continued on the new sanctuary, at 97 Ninth St., and the first service was held there in November 2007.

The ministers who have served at Ninth Street Church of Christ are Brothers U. Knight, William Whitter, L.C. Hendricks, Thomas Reese, J.R. Reeves, Fenton Martin, Thomas Sparks, V.E. Williamson, Darnell Brown, Charles Richardson, F.R. Singleton, J.E. Thomas Sr., E.K. Felton and Xerxes Snell.

Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].