Greater Bethel AME Church has been a staple and pioneering church in Gainesville, FL since 1869. Enriched in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) tradition founded by Richard Allen, Greater Bethel serves the community by ministering to the spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional, economic, and environmental needs of all people through spreading the liberating gospel of Christ. The church has developed numerous programs that have empowered lives by saving the lost, healing broken families, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, providing jobs for the jobless and encouraging the sick.

For 140 years, Greater Bethel has been committed to serving the body of Christ by glorifying and building the kingdom of God. Under the current leadership of the Pastor Karl V. Smith, Sr., Greater Bethel is soaring to a new dimension in order to disciple more saints and effectuate change in the world.