Tony Walliser, senior pastor of Silverdale Baptist Church, shared with his congregation in January that he felt God was calling their church to build a strong Hispanic ministry during this calendar year.
Less than four months later, Silverdale was contacted about the possibility of merging with St. Elmo Avenue Baptist Church - which houses the Hispanic ministry Alfa y Omega.
St. Elmo Avenue pastor Roger Kittle also had made a January announcement just two weeks after Walliser's: Kittle gave a six-month notice that he was going to New Mexico as a missionary to the Navajo reservation.
"I had no idea that Pastor Tony had announced his vision of planting a church near downtown Chattanooga or in North Georgia, and much of what he hoped to have happen in that church plant we were already doing," Kittle says.
The St. Elmo Avenue Baptist Church is located across the street from the neighborhood's old fire hall. The St. Elmo church is merging with Silverdale Baptist Church. Silverdale will own and operate the building.If you go
* What: Transition Sunday Service * When: 11 a.m. Sunday * Where: St. Elmo Avenue Baptist Church, 4500 St. Elmo Ave. * Note to parents: No church nursery will be available; everyone will meet together in the sanctuary. * Information: 892-2173
Pastor Tony Walliser of the Silverdale Baptist Church, left, talks with Pastor Roger Kittle at the St. Elmo Avenue Baptist Church.Ministries housed In St. Elmo Avenue Baptist Church
* Alfa y Omega: A Hispanic congregation, primarily Guatemalan residents, who hold Spanish-language services at 2 p.m. Sundays and 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. * Widow's Harvest: A volunteer-led outreach based on James 1:27 that responds to the needs of widows. Last year, 1,140 volunteers completed 210 home repairs and provided lawn care for 38 widows. Between 60 to 70 widows meet weekly at the church for Tuesday Bible studies. * HaCoBa Care Ministries: This outreach of churches in the Hamilton County Baptist Association provides food boxes to families in need as well as sponsoring English as a Second-Language classes, health screenings and assistance with job placement. Between October 2014 through April of this year, 4,740 individuals were assisted.
"One of Tony's leaders was meeting with one of my church leaders on an unrelated business matter and Tony's man, just in casual conversation, mentioned what his pastor had announced. That information was brought to me, prayers went up and God's wheels began to turn," Kittle describes.
St. Elmo Avenue Baptist is turning its church property over to Silverdale - no money exchanged, says Kittle - through a quitclaim deed. The merge becomes official Monday. The St. Elmo site will become "Silverdale St. Elmo," in keeping with the titles of Silverdale's other worship sites such as Silverdale Creekside.
On Sunday at 11 a.m., a celebratory "transition service" will be held at St. Elmo Avenue Baptist, during which Kittle will be honored. The service is open to the St. Elmo community, past members of St. Elmo Avenue church and current members of both congregations, says Travis Jones, the associate teaching pastor at Silverdale who will give the message; Taylor Smith will be the worship leader.
Jones has been chosen to lead Sunday services at Silverdale St. Elmo. He will continue to lead Silverdale Saturday Nights at the Bonny Oaks' church, and other worship services as needed. Walliser remains senior pastor, but now for both sites following the merge.
"We presently have five services every weekend," says Walliser. "Silverdale St. Elmo will be our sixth." Worship services at Silverdale average 2,700 to 3,000 participants each weekend, he says.
Silverdale's current ministries will be incorporated into the St. Elmo church, Jones says.
"We want Silverdale St. Elmo to be part of what's going on here," he says. "Basically, we are one church in two locations. All services each week will be on the same topic; I'll preach the same thing Saturday night at Silverdale as I do Sunday morning in St. Elmo and Tony does on Sundays. The St. Elmo and Bonny Oaks locations will both use the same outlines. This weekend we are beginning a 12-week summer series on the book of James."
The addition of the St. Elmo property gives Silverdale - one of Hamilton County's biggest, most-thriving Baptist churches - a foothold in a neighborhood that is currently being revitalized by young couples and where the next closest Southern Baptist congregations are in Lookout Valley and downtown's Golden Gateway.
In addition to the Alfa y Omega ministry, St. Elmo Avenue also houses a homeschool group, and the offices of Widow's Harvest, which helps provides housing and home maintenance to widows in Chattanooga and in Africa, and HaCoBa Care Ministries, which is the Hamilton County Baptist Association's community outreach. Silverdale's congregation already has volunteers serving Widow's Harvest and HaCoBa Care.
Walliser says one of the first things to be done after the merge will be evaluating the St. Elmo facilities.
"We've got $100,000 in roofs we have to put on immediately," Walliser says. "There is no exchanging of money, but we are going to invest in their facility's renovations. We're hopeful we'll have several hundred in our English-speaking church and several hundred in the Spanish-speaking church. There are a lot of facilities there, and probably 90 percent have been almost unused. We're excited to see God's potential."
St. Elmo Avenue Baptist fills one city block occupying 25,000 square feet along St. Elmo Avenue. The land alone appraised for $120,400 in 2010, according to Hamilton County records. No appraisal was available for the building, a three-story brick structure built in 1962 that features four Ionic columns facing St. Elmo Avenue.
Kittle stresses that St. Elmo Avenue Baptist is not "closing down" and, though the congregation fluctuates anywhere from 40 to 160 members, it "has never been behind on a bill in 19 years."
"We find ourselves in the middle of an up-and-coming community where young professionals are refurbishing the beautiful old homes and bringing a sense of ownership back to what was a more-transient community when I first came here. The children and families we were reaching out to no longer live here," Kittle says.
"Silverdale will bring a much-needed, refined, spirit-led organizational structure that will be more conducive to the community now developing. The greatest days of this church family are still ahead."
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.