{"id":66387,"date":"2025-08-05T12:18:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/?p=50257"},"modified":"2025-11-04T16:25:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:25:47","slug":"from-father-to-son-church-celebrates-60-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/from-father-to-son-church-celebrates-60-years\/","title":{"rendered":"From father to son, church celebrates 60 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINTER HAVEN\u2013From its humble beginnings of meeting in an elementary school in 1965, led by Pastor R. D. Hodges, Winter Haven Baptist Church<\/a>, celebrating its 60th<\/sup> anniversary this year, has grown into a thriving congregation that has been led for the past 44 years by the founding pastor\u2019s son, Mark Hodges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am certain that the longevity of pastors has contributed to the church\u2019s maturity,\u201d said Pastor Hodges, who served on the church staff with his father from 1976 until 1981. After his father passed away in 1981, a young Hodges was called to follow in his father\u2019s footsteps as lead pastor.<\/p>\n

The Florida native has led the church to become a sending, Great Commission church. Investing more than 40 years in pastoral ministry, Hodges considers it a privilege to \u201cpoint people to Jesus and teach them to live dynamic and productive lives for Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

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\u201cOur church has always placed great emphasis on evangelism,\u201d said Hodges. \u201cThe Great Commission is always presented and emphasized at our church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each year, three weeks are set aside on the church calendar for Hodges to preach the Great Commission, and a prayer board is set up in a prominent space in the foyer as a visual reminder for church members to share their faith. The church also hosts an annual missions conference to challenge and remind church members about the privilege of Great Commission participation.<\/p>\n

Convinced that cultivating a heart for missions and evangelism within the church begins with leadership, Hodges personally has invested in missions as he has traveled to more than 35 countries, ministering to missionaries, leading adult and teen mission trips as well as challenging the church to give more than four million dollars to missions.<\/p>\n

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“When leadership in the church genuinely has a heart for missions and for souls, it will carry over to the church membership.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mark Hodges<\/strong>
lead pastor, Winter Haven Baptist Church<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhen leadership in the church genuinely has a heart for missions and for souls, it will carry over to the church membership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And that heart will carry over into giving, church planting and supporting missionaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur church gives somewhere between 15-20% of our annual budget to missions,\u201d said Hodges. \u201cOur church has planted 20 churches in America and several others through international missions. We support 32 missionaries around the world, with some unlisted as they are serving in restricted-access nations. And our church recently has become the sending church for a Spanish mission work in Polk County.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its own community, the church is involved in local public schools, community rescue missions, meals-on-wheels, pro-life pregnancy clinics, and the Florida Baptist Children\u2019s Home in Lakeland.<\/p>\n

Located in one of the fastest growing areas in the country\u2014Polk County\u2014Hodges attributes the church\u2019s fruitful ministry and reputation, both at home and abroad, to consistency.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur church is unique in that we have been consistent in our message and our ministering to our community,\u201d he said. \u201cThat has given us a good reputation and testimony.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Hodges, the focus on missions and evangelism emanates from a focus on Scripture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
From its early days in an elementary school, Winter Haven Baptist Church, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, enjoys worshipping in a beautiful church facility today. Many salvation decisions, baptisms, weddings and funerals that have occurred in this facility are woven into the fabric of the congregation\u2019s missions and evangelism focus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMan\u2019s methods, ideas or intellect will lead the church astray if everything is not grounded in the truth of God\u2019s Word,\u201d he said. \u201cThe biggest aid to the church is a man of God speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does Hodges have a secret to his faithfulness and longevity in pastoral ministry?<\/p>\n

\u201cFaithfulness,\u201d he said, \u201cis a gift from God. The blessing of faithfulness comes when we have a daily walk with God and yield to His Spirit. Associating myself quite frequently with godly pastors has been a source of encouragement and help in staying faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Pastor Hodges has no plans of slowing down anytime soon, the church is prepared when he does decide to retire. In January 2022, the congregation voted on calling Nathan Braymer, who has served on the pastoral staff of Winter Haven Baptist Church since 2007, as its next lead pastor.<\/p>\n

As the church celebrates its 60th<\/sup> anniversary, Pastor Hodges\u2019 prayer is that God will use him and the people of Winter Haven Baptist Church to continue \u201cloving God, loving others and making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

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From its humble beginnings of meeting in an elementary school in 1965, led by Pastor R. D. Hodges, Winter Haven Baptist Church, celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, has grown into a thriving congregation that has been led for the past 44 years by the founding pastor\u2019s son, Mark Hodges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":66418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,25],"tags":[2811,2812,2813],"class_list":["post-66387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-region-central","category-stories","tag-mark-hodges","tag-pastor-r-d-hodges","tag-winter-haven-baptist-church"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66387"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67882,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66387\/revisions\/67882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flbaptist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}