The Conference of 1826 appointed John Slade to assist Josiah Evans in pastoral care of the Tallahassee Mission. Slade became known as the Father of Florida Methodism, helping increase members of the society to 25 and laying groundwork for rapid growth under his successor, Morgan C. Turrentine. The district mission grew to 235 white and 52 Negro members in one year. Of these, the Tallahassee society claimed 65 white and 45 Negro members in 1828. Turrentine and Presiding Elder Evans also secured title to the property the church had been built on two years earlier. On May 30, 1827, trustees of the Tallahassee church paid Robert Butler, commissioner of the City of Tallahassee, $8.92 for the land designated as lot 291 on the city map of 1828.

In February 1828, the South Carolina Conference, of which Florida was a part, decided to divide the Tallahassee Mission into the Leon Circuit and Tallahassee Station (now Trinity Church). The new pastor to this self-supporting church, Josiah Freeman, became the first stationed pastor in Florida.

The first Quarterly Conference for the Tallahassee Station was held April 5, 1828. The annual salary for the pastor set by church law was $100 for the traveling preacher, $100 for his wife, $16 for each child up to seven, and $24 for each child between seven and fourteen.

As the South Carolina Conference grew, further division took place. In February 1830, the conference was divided along the Georgia-South Carolina state boundary. The Georgia Conference had five districts; the Tallahassee District of the new Georgia Conference included West Florida as well as Middle Florida.