HISTORY OF NEW GREEN GROVE CHURCH OF FAITH
Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church was founded in the year 1909. It was founded by a dedicated group of people who wanted a place to worship. They were Reverend Toby Murphy, Brother Abe Rucker, Sister Florida Thurman, Brother H. E. Standback, Brother Will Allen, Sister Lula Allen, Brother Will Clark and Brother Hall. Services were held each fourth (4th) Sunday.
In 1965, Green Grove M. B. Church was destroyed by fire and was completely rebuilt 1½ years later. Since the church’s inception, it has served under nine (9) pastors and several outstanding officers. Reverend Milton L. Young, our eighth pastor, served for a period of fifty-four (54) years. Rev. Young was a wonderful pastor. Under his leadership many souls were brought to Christ.
In 1995, Pastor Young’s health began to fail. He suffered a stroke causing paralysis to his left leg. Rev. Milton Glass presided briefly in his absence. In July of 1995, Rev. Glass was elected “shepherd over the flock” at Green Grove. Our church name was changed in 1995 to New Green Grove M. B. Church. Today, it is named New Green Grove Church of Faith.
From October 1995 to August 1996, New Green Grove began holding its services at Jones Chapel #1 M. B. Church because of costly water problems in our building. Easter of 2001, New Green Grove Church of Faith celebrated the dedication of its current sanctuary. Previously, we had dedicated our fellowship hall, the Nettie Hawkins Fellowship Hall after Mrs. Nettie Hawkins, who was a long time mother of the church. On February 10, 2008, New Green Grove held its Mortgage Burning Service to celebrate the completion of our mortgage.
Under Bishop Glass’ leadership, many services have been added to spiritually feed the members of this church. We now worship every Sunday with the exception of fifth Sunday and Sunday School, Bible study, and Intercessory Prayer are included in our weekly worship schedule.
Over the years, the pastor and members of New Green Grove Church of Faith have added spiritual growth programs to help our church become more knowledgeable of the Gospel. New Membership Orientation and Saturday Morning Prayer Service were added to help shape spiritual growth. The Congregational Health Ministry was established and is an ongoing ministry to help our members take care of themselves physically, while maturing spiritually. We have also established our own church website, facebook page, and phone text notification system. In 2010, we instituted the Audio/Visual Ministry which includes our CD/DVD tape ministry.
On May 19, 2002, our sister church, The Living Word Church of Faith, a division of Catch the Vision Ministries was established in Lake City, FL. The church is under the leadership of Pastors Vernon and Mitzi Singleton, with Bishop Milton Glass as the overseer. Bishop Glass is also overseer of Word of Life Evangelistic Outreach Ministry in Seattle, WA under the leadership of Apostle Sandra D. Little.
With the need to transport our members to and from services at New Green Grove, the church purchased a church bus in 2002. Many of our members traveled to different events on this bus. The bus served its purpose, however; in 2009, it was sold and was replaced with a second van purchased in 2005 and a 25 passenger bus purchased in 2011. The transportation ministry is always ready to assist our members who don’t have a ride to church.
With the increase of its membership over the years, New Green Grove had to expand as well. One area of expansion is the purchase of twenty (20) acres of land in 2003 located across the street from the church. In 2009, part of the land was made into a parking lot to assist with the overflow of parking. Future plans and the vision of Bishop Glass is to use the remainder of the land to build a Spiritual Life Center to further support our outreach ministry in the community.
In 2014, New Green Grove dedicated its newly constructed Annex building in honor and memory of our First Lady Rosie A. Glass. We also renovated our existing fellowship hall and expanded our new foyer. The finance office was recently completed. New Green Grove has a lot to celebrate as God has blessed us in so many ways. To God be the Glory!!