UBC was started as a mission by the Southern Baptist Association in the late 1950s in Palm Lake Estates. The congregation began gathering at a God-fearing and honoring woman named Goldie’s house and then moved to Bonneville Elementary School. During this time, a portable was set on the property as the current sanctuary was built around it (14707 Sussex Drive, Orlando, FL 32826). The portable was then disassembled and removed. UBC was officially chartered on June 6, 1959! The fellowship hall and kitchen were added later. In 1990, the pastorium was built. For decades, UBC has been blessed to have the hand of God on it. It has been filled with great people and led by giant-hearted pastors.

Pastor Nathan Wilder and his family arrived to fill the pulpit for UBC in August of 2016.  Filling the pulpit turned into standing in the gap as Interim Pastor. God then opened the door for Nathan to serve as Senior Pastor beginning in January of 2017. Over the next 2 years, UBC multiplied into 3 church campuses: UBC English, UBC Spanish, and UBC @ UCF (University Church). A bi-vocational pastor led each church campus. With all 3 church campuses running, we experienced the benefits of functioning as one church with 3 specific missions to accomplish… to the glory of God!

In 2020, a world-wide pandemic, Covid-19, impacted everyone on Earth! In our lifetime, we never would have predicted, thought, or imagined something like this happening that would cause the world to shut down and isolate with the hopes of avoiding this disease. With the business and school world shutting down, the church world followed suit. As a church, this would be a great challenge to learn, adapt, and be flexible to keep the church doors open. UBC answered the challenge through email communication, voice memos, radio channels, and online church services. After a couple of months of using creative communication methods, UBC began to meet in person while hosting outdoor services. We then moved to indoor services, with proper spacing between families and wearing face masks to increase safety.  By January 2023 (after 2 years!), we felt like we were back to pre-Covid form with things becoming more normal and guests returning regularly. Our UCF church campus would not make it through the post-Covid rebuild that also was challenged by a pastoral change. Because the gap in leadership proved to be too wide, we decided to pause the mission at UCF through a church plant and merge those who felt called back into UBC at Bonneville. This merge provided a young adult spark that benefited the church greatly.  Since that time, we’ve had several students married and now have babies!

Just after Covid, we were challenged to think about the future of the church when it comes to facilities. With the buildings built in the late 1950s and a pastorium getting older, we were challenged to seek God for direction on a capital improvement campaign.  Our research was deflating as we learned that a new and basic building would be a minimum of 1 million dollars. We formed a long-range planning team and decided to bring Jesus our “2 fish and 5 loaves of bread” and trust Him with the results.

While UBC was moving forward with our best effort to answer the call of God with limited resources and a dead end for growth and multiplication, there was a church about 15 minutes west on East Colonial Drive that was in a similar situation. Grace Journey Community Church (formerly First Baptist Church of Union Park) stood on a solid foundation of God’s work and spiritual leadership for decades (Leonard Jones, Coleman Pratt, and John Alexander). Over the last decade, GJCC went through multiple challenges: transitions in leadership, transitions in methodology, transitions in membership, and all the challenges that came along with the pandemic. In 2022, GJCC’s transition pastor, Pastor Bill Bishop, answered God’s call to lead the church through their next transition (praise God for this!). After 1.5 years of seeking God’s direction, God connected Pastor Bill and Pastor Nathan in the summer of 2023… and this was a God-sized connection!

Pastor Nathan and UBC, along with Pastor Bill and GJCC needed God-sized provision. With UBC and GJCC both seeking Christ on His plans for the immediate and long-term futures, God had a plan that Hollywood couldn’t orchestrate. UBC needed facilities and GJCC needed leadership. Could it be that the uniting of both churches would be the God-sized provision everyone was seeking God for?! Would the uniting of both of these churches allow for the best potential for immediate and long-term growth?!  You bet!

After 6 months of confirmations (salvations, baptisms, growing attendance) and taking steps toward a possible uniting of churches, both churches voted for GJCC to join UBC in December of 2023! In February of 2024, UBC English moved from Bonneville and began to worship in Union Park (10301 East Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32817) while the Spanish congregation moved into the Bonneville Worship Center in April of 2024. Now, UBC is one church in two locations, Union Park and Bonneville! The Spanish church made the Bonneville campus their own while God allowed a hurricane that damaged the facilities which allowed for insurance coverage to help pay for roofs and renovations. The Union Park Campus began to operate as University Baptist Church with the spiritual growth process of: Gospel, Growth, and Go. Since the transition, both campuses have experienced a strong impact in the local communities, salvations, baptisms, and an increase in partners, as well as guests… thus, providing even more confirmation of this unbelievable faith step orchestrated by God and the faithfulness of His people to follow in one of the biggest faith steps in the history of both churches!

There is so much more to these stories and we are so excited to be included on this journey with God’s lead. We pray we will continue to seek God with our whole hearts, pray big prayers, never doubt the faithfulness of God, and follow His vision and plan which is far greater than we can think or imagine! May future generations be encouraged by the move of God at UBC from the 1950s through 2025. May they be encouraged to trust in God enough to take the faith steps required to accomplish His goals. He will provide in His way and His timing!