After Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church was founded in 1946, the first building erected on its property in Jacksonville's San Marco neighborhood was not a sanctuary.
The church first built a gymnasium that along with an adjacent athletic field ultimately fueled a year-round youth sports league that thrives to this day.
The order of construction was an early testament to the church's fundamental reason for being — outreach to all ages, all races, all sorts. That drive to serve others will be celebrated this weekend at for church's 75th anniversary.
Read the rest of the story at WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.