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Highland Park Baptist returns to SBC, renovates massive auditorium

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Mel Leatherman

Highland Park Baptist Church is returning to its historic roots and looking to the future at the same time.

As the 118-year-old church puts the final touches on $3 million in renovations of its auditorium in front of a June 22 grand opening, it has quietly rejoined the Southern Baptist Convention after more than 60 years as an independent Baptist church.

In the “national process, they are not our enemy,” said Dr. David Bouler, pastor of the church since 1991. “We find ourselves walking the same path (as the SBC).”

He said Tennessee Temple University is also in the process of being approved as an SBC school.

While all Baptist churches are autonomous, the church disaffiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention under the leadership of longtime pastor Dr. Lee Roberson in the late 1940s, according to a 1985 Chattanooga Times story.

Because Southern Baptists, at the time, criticized Tennessee Temple, which was started in 1946, “the deacons and trustees felt we should be independent,” the longtime pastor, who died in 2007, said in the story.

What drove Highland Park back into the SBC fold, according to Dr. Bouler, was a denominational program that supplied Bibles to Muslims.

“That program touched our hearts,” he said.

Theologically, the congregation “stands shoulder to shoulder with Bible believing Baptists,” Dr. Bouler said.

To better minister to families and “reach new people for Christ,” the church has reduced the size of its 5,700-seat auditorium, completed in 1981, in order to bring classroom space for young children and their parents under the same roof as the worship services.

“They don’t have to walk as far,” said Dr. Bouler. “That’s real important.”

The auditorium still remains sizable with room for 2,000 people. A balcony also can be added in the future for more seating.

Dr. J.R. Faulkner, co-pastor with Dr. Roberson at the time, said in a 1983 newspaper article that the church made a conscious decision to make the auditorium as large as possible when it was built.

“In order to get maximum space for the auditorium,” he said, “we sacrificed everything else. We are utilizing every inch as much as government law will allow. Everything else has been minimized.”

The newly renovated structure includes seven classrooms for children up to 5 years old, seven adult classrooms, a pastor’s reception room, a coffee/cafe area, a bookstore and a grand lobby that affords a gathering area before and after services.

Four flat-panel television screens have been mounted through the hallway outside the auditorium and in the cafe area for additional viewing.

A new wooden cross on the lobby ceiling is lit with 350 lights and will be a focal point for traffic on Bailey Avenue.

“Our goal is to prepare this generation and the next,” said Dr. Bouler.

Inside the auditorium, high-definition screens have replaced the original screens behind the altar area, and all broadcasting equipment has been converted from analog to digital.

Further, the pews have been sanded, painted and recushioned, and more neutral carpeting has replaced Dr. Roberson’s favorite color, red. The auditorium walls have been repainted from cream to a light gold, and stone has been added to the baptismal area.

Behind the auditorium, the choir robing rooms have been refurbished.

The renovations took seven months to complete, a month or two ahead of schedule, said Mel Leatherman, a church member who served as liaison to contractor T.U. Parks Construction Co.

“One of our goals,” he said, “was to make it more user friendly for everyone.”

During the service in which the church re-enters its auditorium, the contractor, the architectural firm (Franklin Associates) and various individuals and church teams responsible for various aspects of the renovation will be honored.

“We’re excited about the grand opening,” said the Rev. Scotty Marcum, associate pastor.

Through the church’s Together We Can program, the congregation already has raised half of the money for the renovations, which was a goal, Dr. Bouler said. Most recently, 68 families joined the fundraising campaign, he said.

“It think it’s caught hold of their heart,” he said.

Dr. Bouler said while Highland Park’s physical facilities may have changed, and its affiliation may have returned to the SBC, “our message will never change.

“But the methodology has to change to reach this generation,” he said. “We want to reach more people, to reach more families.”

In the 1980s, when the church completed its auditorium, newspaper stories listed its membership at 57,000, including missionaries and out-of-town members.

Today, the church has 8,000 or 9,000 members, plus those members who do not live locally, and is growing, Mr. Marcum said.

Indeed, through its Year of Evangelism effort, Dr. Bouler said, more than 300 people have been “saved” in 2008.

And while only 5 percent of church members ever bring anyone to Christ, he said, “our people are taking it to heart.”