Impossibilities vanish when people and their God confront a mountain...
but with God all things are possible.
- Matthew 19:26
Around 1946, a group of about nine people met for Bible study each week in the home of Robert Porter located behind the taxidermist on John Sims Parkway. Included in this group was Irene Porter and three of her children. W. B. Hughes held a tent meeting each summer.
The church outgrew the home meeting place and started meeting in the auditorium of Edge Elementary School. Later, the meeting place changed to the Niceville City Hall.
W.B. Hughes was the minister when the congregation decided to build a place of worship. He donated his minister's salary toward the building during this time. He drove a bread truck for his living income. The members of the church built the current building themselves, even molding the cement blocks. This was in the early 1950's.
Around 1964, two Sunday morning worship services were held because of overcrowding. A larger building was needed, so on March 13, 1966, the present church building was dedicated. The congregation furnished the labor for the minister's house, adjacent to the east parking lot. The three-story education building attached to the west side of the auditorium was built by the members on a cash basis from 1968-1972. The foyer was enlarged in 1978, and the parking lot resurfaced. The fellowship hall was added in 1986, again built by members of the congregation with the exception of the sheet rocking, heating, and cooling.
Sam Harline was the first full-time minister. Gene Albritton was the next minister, then came Jack Glasgow, and then Tommy Nerren. Terry Hanna and his family came to Niceville from Memphis, Tennessee, in February 1962. Larry Williams and his family came to work with the church in 1979 and was in charge of Outreach until Scott McCown and his wife Amy came to work with the church in 1989. Scott was the second minister and worked with the youth until he was asked to preach full time in 1995. Scott McCown accepted a pulpit minister job in Alabama in June 1999. Brother Joe Palmer moved from Kentucky and became our full time pulpit minister from November 1999 through July 2002. Philip Box served the congregation from January 2003, until July 2006.
Currently the church is served by Joe Palmer as the preaching evangelist, and David Copeland as the Youth Evangelist. We have four elders and ten deacons and various other ministry leaders. The congregation in Niceville is a diverse body of young and old. We have a large number of active duty and former military families.