On Sunday, September 17, 2023, Pastor David Hughes addressed the congregation: “Church, we had a situation here,” and proceeded to tell the group “due to a technicality” and for one reason or another bottom line, First Baptist Fort Lauderdale appeared to be “late” with the mortgage payment. “All churches generally have mortgages just like us… I won’t get into all the details, but it happened,” Hughes went on….

And the lender called the note in for the $3.5 million dollars owed.

Gasp!

“That’s not all; I was angry feeling they were trying to take advantage of us because this is very, very valuable land here in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and I prayed hard about it. They’re not gonna get this land (to redevelop) from us; the lender said they would rewrite the $3.5 million loan but at 12% interest NOT the previous 4% interest. That did not sit well with me.”

“I met with the Trustees here at FBFL and asked for $500,000 from contingency funds,” Hughes said, and they granted the request, but we still needed $3 million, so I met with the Trustees at Church By The Glades – and I’m one of them,” Hughes continued, and “although we are two churches with two different names and the names will stay as is for the foreseeable future …but, we are ONE church, so I asked that the $3 million dollars from CBTG be a gift; not a loan. You see, because if we we’re only dating, the $3 million would be a loan, but we are married now, so the $3 million is a gift.”

“Church, I’m happy to announce,” Pastor David Hughes continued, “for the FIRST time since 1966, First Baptist Fort Lauderdale is debt free.” GOD is good.

-Les Feldman, Good News Publisher

For more by Les Feldman, visit https://www.goodnewsfl.org/author/les-feldman/