This is a time of great opportunities for Providence Church.

We are now into our 12th year as a church, and our desire to be a church faithful to the Lord Jesus is as strong as ever.  We have believed Jesus when He said “I will build my church”, and He has been very good to us.

Jesus gave us our mission when He said “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.”  This is accomplished through the heralding of the gospel.  We are a people who love the gospel, for by it we behold the glory of Christ!  So we seek to live in the gospel, to proclaim the gospel, and to contend for the gospel in our community and culture.

From the beginning, our stated desire has been to see men and women, boys and girls, shaped by the gospel of Jesus so that they live as witnesses of His grace and goodness in every realm of life. 

Within our homes and families and workplace and neighborhoods, we desire our members to grow deeper in their knowledge of God’s truth, to see more clearly the glory of Christ, and experience the sweetness of living according to the Holy Spirit.

Our desire has always been to see Biblically faithful people and families.

We desire to see men who love and lead, women who flourish, and children who are courageous.  Trained in the gospel, they walk in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints and they contend for its truth in Christ-honoring ways.

We desire to be a church that worships God with passionate affection and Biblical fidelity.  We desire to do the work of the ministry by abounding in good deeds, especially to those with whom we are joined together in church membership.  We desire to be people who love Christ and are so devoted to Him that we say with the Psalmist, “there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You.”

We desire to be a church that intentionally seeks to cultivate and restore a high view of God’s sovereignty over all things, in life and in the church.  A church that knows we didn’t invent Biblical doctrine but stand on the shoulders of faithful saints who have gone before us.

We desire to be a church that creates a Biblical literacy among God’s people so that they stand firm in the faith, teach the whole gospel of Christ, and shine as lights of truth in a world of increasing darkness.

We desire to be this kind of church!

While we aim to be this kind of church, we desire to plant other churches that are committed to the same.  This has been a conviction of Providence Church since its founding.

It is quite simple:  we want to plant like-minded churches across our county.  Churches that are confessional, committedly reformed, age integrated, and minister the Word of God by preaching it faithfully and consistently. 

We want to see churches throughout Santa Rosa County that are so firmly planted in orthodox, historical Christianity that the winds of weak-kneed evangelicalism will not toss them about.  We want to see churches that are rich with seriousness and joy; churches that serve as lifeboats to God’s elect that long for something deep and steadfast.  And that begins right here at 5277 Glover Lane in Milton.

This calling and vision is bigger than any of us, and will take time and patience for the plants to become rooted.

In God’s good providence, Providence Church has been planted, and it is time for us, by God’s grace, to put down roots.  We desire to deepen our presence in this community and increase our impact on generations to come.

The elders have prayed about and planned for the next season of our church, and we are more committed than ever to seeing God’s holy name hallowed and His people thrive, and we’re calling you to join us!

Affirm the Vision:  this is about all of us, Providence Church, together doing what the Lord has given us to do.  Pray regularly for the work given to us.  Our aim is to put down roots where God has placed us, to continue to do the one-another ministry that church membership requires, and to be a light to our community to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus by planting churches.

Invest in the Calling:  the Lord has opened the door for us to plant a new church.  And He has blessed us with this property.  We want to be faithful stewards of both!  We want to expand the preaching of Christ to our community through church planting, and we are called to see this church property reach its full potential by being a blessing to the Lord’s people and a witness to our community.  To plant a church and renovate a property requires funding, therefore we’re asking also that you:

Commit to Give:  the calling before us is not just renovating our sanctuary or planting churches, but is about our future as it will expand into our children and grandchildren’s generations.  Therefore, this is much more than a giving campaign.

We prayed together for years for the Lord to provide a place for Providence, and many of you prayed along with us.  In His kindness, He has granted our request.  After beginning in a living room, moving to a school room, then to a small church building, to a Fellowship Hall of one church and then to another, God has blessed us with the purchase of this property in July 2024.

Renovations were required and much labor was given to begin meeting here in October 2024.  We have renovated Exeter Hall and Founder’s Hall.

As our church plant continues to put down roots, there are big ideas we have for Providence and there are immediate plans.

Big Vision

In thinking about the future of Providence Church, we have considered a number of possibilities that could take shape here.  These are big picture ideas that, if the Lord wills, could be part of our ministry in the coming decades. 

• continue the ministry of the word and prayer by increasing our number of prayer meetings
• establish a church-wide Sunday school
• develop a ministry of Christian education that serves children and families
• establish a music conservatory that teaches music appropriate for worship
• leading and hosting conferences that enrich our faith
• write and publish books and materials that serve Providence members
• train and ordain men that will be elders in our churches
• plant 4 more reformed baptist churches in our county
• through the churches we plant, establish a doctrinally unified association of autonomous reformed baptist churches that will serve one another.
• commission and send missionaries to preach Christ to unreached people groups

Immediate Vision

In the next 24-36 months we will plant a new church and renovate this property.

• Complete the “odds and ends” of Phase I of renovations by August 2025
• Plant Petty France Reformed Baptist Church in the Navarre/Gulf Breeze area in summer of 2026
• Complete renovation of sanctuary and property in 24-36 months in two more phases:  1 - completion of the foyer with new bathrooms attached to city sewer along with the exterior of the building; 2 - the remodel and completion of the interior of the sanctuary

We desire to see a confessionally Reformed, theologically rich, and practically sound church raised up in the

Navarre/Gulf Breeze community.  We are committed to planting a church with a plurality of mutually accountable elders, a strong commitment to historic Reformed and Baptist doctrine, and faith in God's power to transform His people through expositional, Christ-centered preaching.

First, the Gulf Breeze / Navarre area is growing. There is a desperate need to have healthy churches ready to be a beacon for the gospel to this community.

Second, there is a famine in the land. Many (if not most) of the churches which exist in the area are Biblically malnourished. The great need of the day is for faithful, Bible-preaching churches to boldly proclaim the gospel without compromise.

Third, many (if not most) of the churches have irreverent worship, loose doctrine, and gross immorality which grieves the heart of faithful brethren.

Fourth, the Great Commission is Christ’s command to plant churches. Christ orders true churches to expand the kingdom of God by helping to establish new bodies where the Word of God will be faithfully taught and the ordinances of Christ will be faithfully observed.

For all of these reasons and more, it is felt that there is a need for a new gospel church to be planted in this area.

In the 17th century, a Reformed Baptist congregation met in a small English hamlet called Petty France.  This Petty France congregation was pastored for a time by Nehemiah Coxe.  While his writings on covenant theology and Biblical eldership remain important, Nehemiah Coxe is primarily remembered as the co-editor of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith alongside his fellow elder at Petty France, Williams Collins.  While he did not survive to see the confession adopted by the General Assembly in 1689, he and the church he served left a lasting impression on the Reformed Baptist movement which continues to this day.

We want this property and facility to bless God’s people and serve as a witness of His majesty to our community.  We believe aesthetics communicate, and we desire our church property to communicate, however imperfectly, the majesty, beauty, transcendence, and immanence of God.  The most glorious truth in the world is the truth of the Gospel of Jesus.  There is profound beauty in the saints of God gathering together to worship Him on the Lord’s Day.  And God, who transcends all else, is pleased to inhabit the praises of His people.

Therefore, we want to build something that is bigger than us.  We have a rich heritage of Biblical reformers from whose roots we extend, and we desire to leave a legacy for our children and grandchildren to continue.  Our desire is that Providence Church will be a generational church; that is, a church where our children’s children will worship God.

So we build in hope that they, by God’s grace, will continue in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We build in hope that Christ will be faithfully preached for generations.  We build in hope that a sense of reverence and awe will befall God’s people when they enter the sanctuary.  We build in hope that God will be worshiped in an acceptable manner, instituted by Him in His Word.

We want to see the renovation of the sanctuary and property in the next 2-3 years. These renovations will take place in two phases:

Phase I

RENOVATE THE FOYER

• complete with bathrooms for men and women,
• a mom’s room/bridal suite, and a security room
• connect all plumbing to city sewer
• renovate the exterior of the sanctuary including new  siding, front portico, and steeple tower

Phase II

RENOVATE THE SANCTUARY

• a beautiful space that lends toward reverence and awe
• build a porte cochere with covered walkway into side entrance of sanctuary
• complete Founder’s Hall art wall of founding figures honoring our reformed heritage

RENOVATE THE PROPERTY

• create a designated parking lot
• update all landscaping, add exterior lighting, install a new fence around the property
• demo front house and create a new entrance