HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
The history of the Dover Advent Christian Church can be traced back to around 1900 when a small group of people began holding services in a strawberry packing shed owned by Mr. Jack Johnson. It was located near the intersection of present-day Gallagher Road and Walden-Sheffield Roads. Some of these early members were from Hamilton County, Florida where they had been members of the Jasper Advent Christian Church.
After about 5 years of holding informal meetings they decided it was time to become a formal Church organization. So, in that same packing shed in 1905 The “Second Advent Christian Church” was born with Rev C. M. Miley as it’s first pastor. Those named among its members were: Thomas H. Sauls and family, J. R. Sauls and family and John Erwin Williamson and his family. There were fifteen charter members in all. Later that year they constructed the first church building near the packing shed on a small parcel of land donated by Jack Johnson.
That building served the church until 1920 when because of the flooding of a near-by creek, the church decided to move to higher ground. Mr. John W. Langford donated a piece of property at the corner of Dover Road and Downing Street for the new church. The Langford family had also come to Dover from Jasper Florida where he had been the town Marshall.
The 1920 church building served the church on this site until 1955 when a project was begun to construct the church’s third church building. The 1920 wooden building was moved across the street to make room for the new concrete block building that was dedicated in November of 1961. The old wooden building became our first Fellowship Hall. In 1978 a new Fellowship Hall was constructed to replace the old wooden church building.
From the early year to the present the following pastors have served the Dover Advent Christian Church.
Rev. C. M. MileyApril, 1905-1911
Rev. Joseph Sherouse 1911-1912
(Revival Period) 1913-1920
Rev. C. M. Miley 1920-1924
Rev. W. A. Jordan 1924-1925
Rev. Harry Clauson 1926-1927
Rev. S. W. Good 1927
Rev. Ralph Smith 1928
Rev. Hendricks 1928
Rev. John M. Kelly 1928
Rev. C. P. Thornton 1930-1931
Mr. Frank Walker 1932
Rev. C. R. White 1932-1935
Rev. D. F. Sutley 1935
Rev. S. A. Mundy 1936-l941
Rev. Robert Keepers 1941
Rev. Arthur Bucknan, Jr. 1941
Rev. A. C. Hett 1942-1948
Rev. C. A. Hawks 1949
Rev. Robert Beatty 1950-1955
Rev. Howard F. Nason 1955-1960
Rev. Fred Lawrence 1960-1964
Rev. Wendell Dubois 1964-1966
Rev. Johnny Nicely 1966-1973
Rev. John A. Cargile 1973-1977
Rev. Doug Lucas 1977-2018
Rev. Matthew Malinowski 2018-Present
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”Galatians 6:9
