Forest Hills Baptist Church, Florence, marked a half-century of ministry Sept. 22 at its “Celebrating 50 Years” service with a “very large crowd” of 260 people, Pastor Rich Hardeman said.
In fact, the church televised the 10:30 a.m. service into an overflow room to accommodate the crowd, he noted.
Hardeman delivered the sermon and Jerry Armor, representative from the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission, presented a plaque to the Colbert-Lauderdale Baptist Association church.
“We had a marvelous worship time led by our worship leader, Mike Price,” Hardeman said, noting a memorable part of the day was the opportunity to meet some of Forest Hills Baptist’s charter members. “It was good to connect with those folks,” he said.
A time of fellowship followed the service with a dinner on the grounds.
Hardeman acknowledged how the church “came together and worked so very hard for this. We have a loving, caring church that really pulled together and … made this a special day,” he said.
When speaking of his vision for the future of the church, Hardeman noted the importance of reaching out to young families, adding Forest Hills recently began a preschool program in August 2013 that is already growing.
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