67,000 people gathered in Jacksonville, FL last Saturday for the border battle between the Universities of Georgia and Florida, but on Sunday morning there was another large gathering at Bethel Church in that same city. Bethel is one of the largest churches in FL with over 12,000 attendees each Sunday morning. I was interested in getting some history on the church and found this background information on its founder, James McDonald:
James McDonald is the founder of Bethel Church in Jacksonville, FL. James was born in Ireland and was trained to be a Catholic Priest, but moved to the United States when he was 31 years old and enlisted in the Armed Services. At the age of 38, he saw an article in the Christian Index reporting a low number of new church starts in the central FL area and answered the call to move to that area to plant a church. At the first church service, there were 6 attendees, 4 white and 2 black. The 2 black attendees were owned by one of the white attendees. James had some experience with injustice. Before fleeing Ireland, James witnessed the lynching of his father along with 14 of his relatives for their participation in the Irish Rebellion. The year was 1805.
James is obviously no longer with us, but I am delighted to see that something he started almost 200 years ago is still thriving. Maybe one day, there will be 67,000 people in attendance there.
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