Our Next Service

About

First Baptist Church of Key Largo traces its beginning to the summer of 1955 when a small group of Christians started meeting in the Key Largo Civic Club for prayer and Bible study. By the next summer, the group had grown large enough to be sponsored as a mission by the Central Baptist Church of Miami. Eight years later, on December 6, 1964, the mission became a fully constituted church. The picture below is of Pastor Jake Reed and some leaders of the church outside the then ‘front doors’ of the church near the time it was constituted in 1964.

The land where the church is now located was purchased in 1957. The first building (pictured above) was completed in 1958 and contained an auditorium, six classrooms, a kitchen and bathrooms. This building now serves as our Fellowship Hall. It was expanded to almost double its size in 1959 to add more classrooms and a nursery. A new sanctuary was constructed in 1969 and is still used today. The picture below is from the Keynoter on June 26, 1969, and shows Pastor Lee Graham outside the newly completed auditorium.

The church has been led by 20 pastors over its 50+ years. Their names and dates of service are:

Dr. Samuel Lacy … August 1955 – April 1956
Ivan Felton (Interim) … April 1956 – September 1956
Rev. Bob Crowe … October 1956 – August 1959
Rev. Joe Sciame … September 1959 – December 1962
Dr. Carter (Interim) … February 1963 – April 1963
Rev. Jake O. Reed … April 1963 – July 1965
Rev. George Moulton … December 1965 – July 1967
Rev. Lee Graham … October 1967 – October 1976
Rev. Dale Bird (Interim) … November 1976 – March 1977
Rev. Jere Hendricks … April 1977 – March 1981
Rev. Ralph Acree (Interim) … March 1981 – December 1981
Rev. Ron Lentine … December 1981 – July 1987
Rev. Ted Place (Interim) … October 1987 – May 1988
Rev. Robert Norman, Jr. … May 1988 – May 1991
Rev. Steve Zahare (Interim) … May 1991 – November 1992
Rev. Don Houser (Interim) … November 1992 – January 1993
Rev. Wally Gravlin (Interim) … January 1993 – July 1993
Rev. Dixie Glisson … July 1993 – July 1998
Dr. Herschel Creasman (Interim) … October 1998 – May 1999
Rev. Charles Rosenbalm … May 1999 – Present