St. Johns County FL is nestled in between the Atlantic Ocean and the St. Johns River and is filled with dozens of historical and natural landmarks.
St. Augustine, the county seat, was incorporated under Florida law on Dec. 2, 1924. Other great communities include Ponte Vedra, St. Augustine Beach, Fruit Cove, Nocatee, and Hastings.
Fruit Cove Baptist Church is a church that loves its community and is known as a serving church. We are a church that is committed to the Word of God, the Worship of God, the Mission of God, the Family of God and the Glory of God. The church is consistently in the top 10% of giving to the Cooperative Program, Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. Mission partnerships with nearly 50 church plants and ministry organizations locally, nationally and globally see hundreds of people engaged in short term mission trips annually. Dr Tim Maynard served as Lead Pastor for 31 years until his retirement. In June 2023, Dr Heath Woolman came to serve as the new Lead Pastor.
Our Worship Services
We currently have 3 Sunday morning worship services in 2 on-campus venues. A 9:30 and 11am Worship service takes place in the Worship Center while a 9:30 service occurs in Bldg A. The Bdlg A venue features a live worship band, and the sermon is streamed onto the big screen.
What is it Like to Attend a Service?
What Makes Fruit Cove Unique?
One of the things that makes our church unique is the equal representation across generations. From preschoolers to senior adults and everyone else in between, Fruit Cove is well balanced. Another unique factor is that while some churches are seeing a decline in things like Sunday School and Wednesday night programming, these small group opportunities are actually growing at Fruit Cove and serve as the backbone of the church. Our Sunday morning small groups are called Connect Groups and multiple small group opportunities are available at MidWeek on Wednesdays.
What Is Our History?
In 1978, when a small group of Baptists began meeting in homes in the Fruit Cove area, State Road 13 was a quiet, scenic, two-lane highway. As State Road 13 has changed, so has the church which grew from the original band of believers.
Members who were a part of that first fellowship group fondly remember meeting in the Switzerland Volunteer Fire Department, after the group outgrew its members’ homes. “It was a spiritually growing experience, but we had some hardships as well,” acknowledged charter member Sue Bailey. “I remember that we froze in the winter and fried in the summer; and rain on the tin roof overpowered any preacher’s voice.”
The growing fellowship became Fruit Cove Baptist Mission under the sponsorship of Southside Baptist Church in Jacksonville. The mission formally constituted as a church in March 1983, and called its first full-time pastor, Archer Thorpe. The congregation also bought nine acres of land along State Road 13.
The church’s first building was completed in 1982, and an educational building was added three years later. The 15,000-square-foot-fan-shaped worship center was dedicated April 6, 1997, the 19th anniversary of the first meeting in the Switzerland fire station.
On the occasion of the dedication of the worship center, Pastor Tim Maynard stated that the occasion was “a great day for us. But there will be many more. We do not see this building as an end product. We are at the beginning, not the end.”
