Our Beginnings

On the second Thursday of August 2012, several families met together in one of our homes to discuss whether or not we believed God was leading us to establish a new local Baptist church in the greater Chattanooga area. After sharing our hearts and minds with one another, we decided among ourselves to discuss this with no one over the next two weeks—no one, that is, except for the Lord, and to meet again to share how the Lord was guiding each of us. After two weeks we met again on August 16 to determine the leadership of the Lord. Then and there those present voted unanimously to establish a church and to call it Bible Baptist Church. On the following Sunday morning, August 19, our church met as one of the Lord’s assemblies for the very first time. Eight couples joined the church that morning. The next Sunday another couple united with our church. Then on September 23, 2012, we had our Charter Service with seventeen people signing the charter.

For several weeks we met in the home of Mike and Linda Bates. Brother Bates served initially as the church’s Bible teacher. After a couple of weeks we moved to a meeting room at the Country Inn Suites in Hixson, Tennessee. We were there for several months until May 2013 when we relocated to our present facility at 1966 Northpoint Boulevard, also in Hixson. In August 2013 the church membership voted unanimously to invite Dr. J. Michael Bates to serve as our pastor. We have added other families since our beginning days and are excited about the prospects for the future.