History of the Central Church of Christ, Ocala, Florida USA

It was January 1, 1912 when Fred Hooper, a young man from Sam's Creek, Tennessee, came to Ocala, Florida. There was no church of Christ meeting in the county at that time, but Fred found two other Christians and the group began worshiping together. About a year later the small congregation shared in a gospel meeting at Capulet, a community six miles southeast of Ocala. Attendance was excellent and eighteen were baptized. The Lord added to His church and soon there were about forty members. This group was able to provide the first building for a church of Christ in Marion County.

In 1920, a congregation was begun in Ocala shortly after a successful tent meeting in the center of town where the library now stands. Several souls were added and a group began meeting in a courtroom of the county courthouse. After eight years, a tornado struck Capulet and the church building there was completely destroyed. Some of the members who had been meeting at Capulet began to worship with the Ocala group. These Christians, meeting together in Ocala, decided to call themselves the "Central Church of Christ."

After the struggles of the "depression years", the church was able to construct their first building for worship in Ocala. It was located on Fifth and Alvarez Avenue. During this period, in the early 1940's, the membership began to increase and Brother R.S. King became the first full time preacher. He was followed by J.P. Prevatt, Lige Martin, Charles London, Walter Henderson and Steve Hudgins, who came in December, 1960.

During the early 60's, the Central church purchased on Silver Springs Boulevard and 30th Avenue. Plans for a larger building were completed and construction began in April, 1964. Members performed much of the labor.

In September, 1968, Colin Williamson, began working as the evangelist, where he remains to this day. Additional property was purchased in 1978 and 1984. The library/office/classroom building was added, and 1986 saw and additional classroom building, increased seating for the auditorium and more parking space.

With growth in numbers, by 1994 it became necessary to add a second Sunday morning service. The congregation soon decided that new property should be found for construction of a larger building. With a great deal of effort by church members in the form of financial support, non-monetary contributions and oversight, a beautiful new building was erected in the year 2000 at 4200 East Silver Springs Boulevard. With all of the extra space in the new building, the church is able to accommodate over 300 truth seekers in a single service. This allows all of our congregation to assemble and worship together.  As of late 2007, Jody Broyles began working with Central as Evangelist, joining Bro. Williamson and Wayne Yancey.

Under the leadership of the elders, preachers and deacons, the congregation stands together in the progress of the Lord's cause in Marion County. We are grateful for the efforts of all whose efforts persist in sharing the gospel and meeting the needs of the saints.

We thank God for his many blessings.

For those who are interested in the more distant history of the church. We would look all the way back to that Day of Pentecost that we read about in Acts 2. The early church prospered under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit through apostles and disciples who preached and taught and ironed out problems among local congregations throughout the world. When the churches each had been established and began functioning as autonomous local congregations, the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit was no longer needed. This pattern of local elders and deacons and evangelists serving as leaders of each congregation has succeeded even to this day.

In America, the churches of Christ rallied under the strong preaching of several men who saw a need to restore the pattern after centuries of intense and distracting influence of denominational movements. The following material consists of selected quotes from a research paper titled “Who are the Churches of Christ?” by Dr. Tom Olbricht of Pepperdine University:

The roots of the Restoration Movement extend backward to the period after the Revolutionary War in which several Americans with religious interests grew restless over autocratic structures, European control and theology, and denominational boundaries. These pressures revamped the mainline churches, but also resulted in independent constituencies springing up in various regions. Four such independent groups in (1) Virginia, (2) New England, (3) Kentucky and (4) Pennslyvania--West Virginia--Ohio, played a role in the crystallization of the restoration movement in the 1830's. The contributions of the constituencies in Virginia and New England were contributory rather than direct.

In Virginia in the 1780's, a group of Methodist ministers led by James O'Kelly (1757-1826) sought freedom from supervision so that Methodist circuit riders could determine their own itinerary. For a time it seemed they would succeed, but the outcome was that preaching assignments were placed in the hands of the Bishop. Those who favored self determination broke away, founding the Republican Methodist Church. In 1794 they changed the name of the body to the Christian Church. Before the turn of the century preachers from this movement were traveling into the Carolinas and making their way through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and Tennessee. They also went west to the Ohio River and migrated into Ohio and Indiana.

In New England, especially in the newly developing regions of New Hampshire and Vermont, persons of Baptist heritage, chiefly Abner Jones (1772-1841) and Elias Smith (1769-1846), formed new churches. They went by the name Christian, or Christian Connexion. They championed defeat of tax support for establishment ministers (Congregational), and rejected the Calvinistic features of Puritan theology in regard to election and predestination. The Bible was heralded, especially the New Testament, as the only source of authority and faith. In their opinion, Christians should cut adrift from historical encrustations so as to create the New Testament church in its first century purity. They started migrating westward after 1810, into upper New York, where they became especially strong, then Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

The two most important tributaries for the larger movement resulted from the work of Barton W. Stone (1772-1844) and the two Campbells, Thomas (1763-1854) and Alexander (1788-1866) father and son.

At the turn of the century the second great awakening titillated the Kentucky and Ohio frontiers. Camp meetings sprang up throughout the region, the largest being the 1801 extravaganza at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, northeast of Lexington. Denominational barriers crumbled and the call to struggle followed by conversion, diluted traditional election theology. As the months wore on, some of the preachers, especially among the Presbyterians, favored the ecumenical savor.

They thereupon formed an independent presbytery. Not too long after, carrying their interests to their logical conclusions, they dissolved the Springfield Presbytery in order to "sink into union with the body of Christ at large." These leaders found many frontiersmen ready to embrace their sentiments and rapid growth ensued. Barton W. Stone, born in Maryland, and then lived in North Carolina before migrating to Kentucky, eventually emerged as the chief spokesman.

In 1807 Thomas Campbell, born in North Ireland of Scottish descent, arrived in Pennsylvania, settling in Washington County. Long a Presbyterian minister, exerted considerable energy in the land of his nativity in a struggle to unify dissident Presbyterian groups. His efforts at similar rapprochement in Pennsylvania resulted in litigation to oust him from the his presbytery. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, he resigned and with others of like-mind, formed the Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania.

In 1809, his gifted son Alexander arrived with the rest of Thomas' family from a stint at the University of Glasgow. Out of the Campbell's efforts, churches were formed in the region around Pittsburgh. After 1816, the Campbells joined with Baptist ministers of the Redstone and later the Mahoning Associations, winning several Ohio and Kentucky Baptist churches to their outlooks. The Campbells envisioned a mass exodus of believers from sectarian Protestantism.

[Unfortunately, the denominationalism they were escaping became a strong influence in their own efforts to advance the cause of Christ.] Early in the 1830's the churches from the Stone and Campbell groups commenced merging in Kentucky. The amalgamation expanded to churches in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Several churches from the New England Jones-Smith, and Virginia O'Kelly movement also became a part of the Stone-Campbell merger. After the Civil War the Christian Connexion churches which did not merge established headquarters in Dayton, Ohio. In 1931 they merged with the Congregational Church, then with the Evangelical and Reformed Church, to form in 1957 the United Church of Christ.

By 1850 Alexander Campbell, because of his journal editing, book publishing, debating, lecturing, and founding Bethany College, became the best known leader of the movement. His outlooks left a permanent stamp on all his descendants regardless of location on the theological spectrum. His views definitely influenced the Churches of Christ even though the perspectives of David Lipscomb (1831-1917) of Nashville, Tennessee, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, modified certain views. Thomas and Alexander Campbell were highly influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment which emphasized reason as opposed to enthusiasm, and exterior constructs in regard to the church, as opposed to inner feeling. They modified their reform views, that is, the heritage of John Calvin (1509-1564), accordingly, though remaining far more “reform” than they themselves recognized.

Churches of Christ have no organizational structure larger than local congregations and no official journals or ways of declaring consensus positions. The churches and preachers are highly entrepreneurial. Consensus views do often emerge through the influence of Christian universities and religious journals. Editors feature consensus positions, and often highlight articles that propose deviations from well worked through and commonly accepted points of view.