Dr. Thomas A. Kinchen, President of The Baptist College of Florida, announced that the sale of the school's Blue Springs Conference Center located in Marianna, Florida has been completed effective July 8, 2020. The ninety-acre facility was constructed by the Florida Baptist Convention in 1982 and served as one of its two conference facilities until 2016. Facing declining utilization of the conference center, the Convention sought to sell the property. After several months of the Convention seeking to sell the property, the College, which is a cooperating ministry of the Convention, requested that the Conference Center be donated to it. The Convention donated the property to the College, and it was operated as a camp through the summer of 2018. During that summer, the camps had their first profit making season in recent memory. In October 2018, Hurricane Michael ravaged the Northwest Florida area. The Blue Springs Center sustained significant damage, and the College decided that the sale of the property was the best route for it to follow.
According to Kinchen, "My heart was broken at the devastation of Blue Springs as a result of Hurricane Michael. I felt that the College would not be able to bring the facility back to its full potential while continuing to operate our primary function of Christian higher education. My great desire in the whole process was to see the property remain as a Christian camp and conference center." After several contacts by various interested parties, the College sold the property to a Christian camp and conference center that already has a very successful operation in Florida. "I believe that this is a fabulous development that has been brought about by our Lord," noted Kinchen. "The property will host far more folks than we could have ever accommodated, and countless individuals will come to faith in Christ at this place in the future. I wish for the new owners every blessing and success provided by our Lord."
With the sale of the Marianna property, The Baptist College of Florida still maintains the two-hundred-fifty-acre campus in Graceville. The college is set to open a campus in Lakeland, Florida in January 2021. Kinchen stated that this opening will be a trip "back to the future" for the school that was founded in Lakeland in 1943.
For more information on the college that is "Changing the World Through the Unchanging Word.®" contact 850-263-3261 or visit the website at www.baptistcollege.edu.