CHURCH
HISTORY
In April
1977 fifteen people met to make plans for starting a Baptist Church.
This group consisted of Doug & Wanda McNabb, Clifton & Linda
Posey, L. J. & Shirley Jenkins, John Philips, Vivian Shudan, Ray
and Nancy Petty, Clifton & Myrtle Guider and Carl & Charity
Harvey.
They met
at the home of Doug & Wanda McNabb. During this meeting they discussed
a name for the church. Eventually, they decided on Fellowship Missionary
Baptist, which was suggested by Clifton Posey. It was also decided the
church would be independent and would support missionaries. A place
was needed for the church to hold their meetings until a church building
could be built. Clifton Posey suggested holding them at the Oddfellows
Lodge Hall.
The Oddfellows
held their meetings in the upstairs of Ashe Furniture Company at the
corner of Kingston Street and Broadway. Clifton Guider knew one of the
members of Oddfellows, Paul Marine. He contacted him about using the
building. With the help of Paul Marine the church received permission
to use the building by paying $200.00 a month rent.
The building was old and the chairs were made with cane bottoms. The
chairs were always stacked next to the wall. On Sundays and Wednesdays
the members took turns setting up the chairs for service. After service,
everyone pitched in and stacked all the chairs back next to the wall.
The building also had an old worn out piano which the church used until
they had money to purchase a new one. Clarence Wright, a member of the
church, built a pulpit stand for the pastor to use. Although the Lodge
Hall had a window air conditioner, it always froze up when the weather
was very hot. When this happened, the hall was very uncomfortable.
The first service at the Lodge Building was held May 8, 1977. Forty-three
people were present. Sunday school classes were held in the kitchen,
the halls, the stairwell, and the large meeting room. In warm weather
the small children had their classes outside. The church had five classes
consisting of Beginners taught by Linda Posey and Myrtle Guider. The
Primary class was taught by Wanda McNabb, the Junior boys were taught
by L. J. Jenkins, and Junior Girls were taught by Nancy Petty and the
Adult class taught by Clifton Guider.
At the first business meeting in the new church a pulpit committee was
selected. The committee consisted of Tom Shudan, John Phillips, Harry
Cannon, and Clifton Guider. A by-laws committee was also selected. It
consisted of Doug McNabb, John Phillips, and Harry Cannon.
On June 5, 1977 an organization service was held. Bro. Bob Ivie, pastor
o Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Meigs County, preached the message
and acted as moderator for the organization. A motion was made to open
the doors of the church and thirty-five individuals came forward to
be received as charter members of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.
Several items were purchased for the church while they were meeting
at the Lodge Hall. They were a piano, an organ, folding chairs, hymnbooks,
two heaters and a water cooler.
The women of the church had several projects to raise money. A Christmas
Bazaar was held in the old pool hall on Broadway in Lenoir City. The
members made Christmas crafts and homemade baked goods to sell. They
also had a harvest festival at the Memorial Building in Lenoir City.
The members again made crafts, sold homemade baked goods and at the
sale they sold homemade soup, hotdogs and chili and homemade beef stew.
Several rummage sales were held at different locations. The women sold
Krispy Kreme doughnuts and took orders for homemade cakes and pies.
The pie and cake orders were made by church members who furnished all
the ingredients and delivered the baked goods. All the proceeds from
these sales were put into the building fund.
On November 9, 1977 the church purchased property on Harrison Road in
Lenoir City. This land was part of the Wallace farm. The land was purchased
from Frances E. and JoAnn Shubert for $12,000. First National Bank in
Lenoir City financed the loan. The loan was paid August 7, 1978.
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The first
pastor, Rev. Roy Arwood, accepted the church in September 1978. Although
he came from a large church in Marietta, Georgia, he felt led to come
to Lenoir City to be the first pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church. Under
the leadership of Rev. Arwood much progress was made. Membership grew
and Rev. Arwood knew how to motivate people to donate money for the church.
After he had preached for Fellowship Church for only a short time he met
with school officials to discuss renting Nichols School. They agreed to
this if the church paid $200.00 quarterly and $15.00 a week to Dave Tyler
to open up the school.
The first
meeting at Nichols was held October 1, 1978. The hall was used for the
beginner class and the other classes were held in the classrooms. Preaching
was held in the school gym. Folding chairs were used and had to be set
out when service started and stacked back when service was over. The piano
and organ were moved to the gym. Clarence Wright built a box that fit
over the instruments, so they could be locked up and the students at Nichols
wouldn't be playing them. The gym was very cold in the winter and the
two heaters the church had purchased had to be used. In the summer the
gym was hot and stuffy. The church bought two portable fans. These fans
helped some but it was still too hot to be comfortable.
On April
28, 1979 the church borrowed $100,000 from the Bank of Loudon County.
This loan was to finance a new church building. A building committee was
elected. This committee consisted of Ray Petty, Clifton Posey and Jim
Price. Charles Wheeler Construction Company was hired to build the church.
The church building was started July 15, 1979. Members of the church helped
finish the church by hanging sheet-rock and painting both the inside and
outside of the building. Each teacher painted their own room and put the
finishing touches such as curtains, bulletin boards and clock in the classroom.
The teachers donated these items. On October 11, 1979 the church borrowed
$25,000 to finish the church. Both loans, one for the $100,000 and one
for $25,000 were paid off in 8 years on March 6, 1987.
On October 14, 1979 the first meeting was held in the new church. One
hundred forty-nine people were there for Sunday school. Over two hundred
were there for church. Rev. Arwood remained pastor of Fellowship Baptist
Church until his death on March 4, 1985.
After the death of Roy Arwood, the church was pastored briefly by Ronnie
Childress and Tommy Brown.
Rev. Eddie Chasteen came to the church on August 17,
1986. Under his leadership, the church attendance continued to grow and
in 1988
a Fellowship Hall was built. It has
a kitchen, small living room, two bedrooms upstairs, two bathrooms, and
a very large room with a basketball goal for the young people to use when
they have their meetings. This Fellowship Hall has been very useful. The
older members of the church use the building for birthdays, anniversary
parties, showers, the church has fellowship meetings at the hall and a couple of Sunday school classes meet each Sunday.
The Fellowship Hall is also used on the first Sunday in June every year
for our homecoming dinner. Members have enjoyed this Fellowship Hall.
A bus ministry was started on July 9, 2000, with routes in Loudon, Lenoir
City, and Kingston. A New Members Sunday school class and an additional
Primaries class were added in March 2002. A larger sanctuary with a seating capacity of 700 was built on the existing site in 2003. On July 8, 2007, Rev. Chasteen, known to all as "Bro. Eddie", resigned as pastor after almost twenty-one years of service.
Fellowship Baptist
Church is blessed with many talented musicians, singers, prayer warriors, and committed servants celebrating 30 years of wonderful service in Jesus!
Bro. Keith Price accepted the call to pastor with much enthusium and humbleness on January 6, 2008.
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| Your
Free Gift
Q. Do you really have a free gift
for me?
A. You have heard, "The greatest things in life
are free?" Things like peace in your heart, joy and happiness, and
contentment. All of these things are wonderful but they are just the by-products
of the gift I’m referring to. The gift I have to offer you today
is the gift of salvation. From salvation you can have peace and joy in
your life, but I must say it is only mine to share because my heavenly
Father has shared it with me and He wants everyone to have it.
Q. How do I know God wants me
to have this free gift?
A. You can know this because God’s son went
through a lot of suffering just so you could know Him and have salvation.
Jesus, which is God’s son, has a story that goes like this, in Romans
5:6, “For when you were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly.” Jesus was willing to die so you could have
everlasting life, which Romans 6:23 tells us is that free gift. “For
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Q. How can I receive this gift
From God?
A. The first thing you must do is understand that this
gift is totally free and paid for by Jesus Christ. Not because you have
been good or special, but because He loves you so much. Romans 3:23, says,
“For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” We
really don’t deserve what Christ has done, but that does not change
the fact that Christ loves you and died for you. Romans 5:8 says “But
God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.” The very reason He died was so you could live
forever in Heaven with Him and the rest of His family members.
Here is what God’s word says about receiving
your gift:
First, you must realize God loves you and is offering you eternal life.
It is yours, if you so desire.
Second, you must call on the Lord. This means, through prayer, you ask
Christ to save your lost, sinful soul, and give you this gift of eternal
life, and in so doing you acknowledge you need Him and want Him. This,
then, is God’s promise to you. Romans 10:13 “For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.”
Q. Is that all there is
to it?
A. “By grace through faith,” is how
God says we are saved. Faith is simply believing and trusting what God
says to be true. When you call and ask Christ to come into your heart
and save you, He said, “You shall be saved!” Now you just
need to thank Him for the gift of eternal life that He graciously shares
with all those that have trusted Him for salvation. Then, find a loving
church that will help you grow as one of God’s children, and start
realizing the tremendous blessing you have received this very day.
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If you have called upon Christ today, will you e-mail us at one of our
feedback stations, or write to us and let us know?
We
would love to hear from one of our new brothers or sisters in Christ.
Pastor Price, would love to pray for you and get you some helpful information
that will encourage your spiritual growth.
Our address: Fellowship Baptist Church • P.O. box 623 • Lenoir
City, TN 37771
Church email: fellowshipblc@aol.com
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