Add an Article Add an Event Edit

Orange Street Church of Christ

310 Orange Street
863-967-1757

The roots of the Auburndale congregation of the church of Christ can be traced back to January of 1913 when Doctor J. P. Jones and his family moved to Auburndale and built a new home. The congregation of 6 members (consisting of Dr. Jones, his wife, his two daughters, his son and daughter-in-law) began holding worship services in their new home. When James Morton and his family moved to Auburndale they too began worshipping with the Jones'.

The church prospered and by 1915 had grown to 17 members. Attendance was quickly growing too large to meet in the Jones' house. Services were soon moved to the old Masonic building on Bridgers Avenue where attendance continued to be good at both Bible School and regular worship services. Several more were added to the church while brother Jones and brother Morton preached at this location.

After a number of years, the old Masonic building was condemned and the members were forced to scatter to surrounding area congregations. The Jones' met with the Eagle Lake congregation (because brother Jones was preaching for them once a month) and the Mortons met with the Winter Haven congregation.

It wasn't until 1932, when brother Byron Conley (sponsored by the Lakeland church of Christ) came to Auburndale and held a tent revival, that the local congregation was reorganized. The new church (consisting of twenty-seven members) met in the new Masonic Hall located on the second floor of the Peoples Bank building. Brother Conley came back in a few months and held another revival, which lasted eight weeks. During this revival meeting, about seventy-five obeyed the gospel and the congregation was raised to over one hundred members.

The church then secured a residential house on Oak Street and converted it into a meeting place. Services were held there for about a year.

In 1934 the church purshased an old store building from the Barfield Lumber Co. in Polk City for $200.00. Five brethren tore down the old structure and loaded the pieces on a truck. Brother and sister (Homer and Carrie Lee) Norman donated a lot at 314 Orange Street (where the church is presently located) and the 28' x 50' building was reconstructed on this lot. In 1939, three classrooms were added to that original building. By 1950, another addition of nine classrooms had been added.

In 1966, a new 350 seat auditorium was built on the north side of the old building (what is now the annex). New upholstered pews were purchased and plans originally called for the old auditorium to be converted to classrooms. At that time the church numbered almost 200.

In 1975, after the instigation of a bus ministry that upped attendance to over 300 (mostly children), it was decided to add an addition to the north side of the auditorium, turn the auditorium seating 270° (putting the pulpit against the South wall). The new addition would increase the seating capacity to approximately 750 and provide 11 new classrooms -- plus a new office. When the bus ministry was abandoned, attendance plunged to about 150.

In April 1985, the then elders (Everette Alexander, Bob Faneuf, Bill Norton, Gaylon West) decided to return the auditorium to it's original 1966 configuration and make a few cosmetic changes. A stone facing was applied to the front (west) wall behind the pulpit and a wall was built along the north side of the auditorium creating a large secondary meeting room to the north. In the summer of 2005 the large meeting room was divided in two and the larger portion was used to house "Bible Lab", an inovative Bible classroom using audio and visual equipment and a flexible curriculum that would allow students to learn at their own pace. As of this writing (2010) our attendance averages about 125.


Photos