The sound of worship fills the new Ark Church, formerly First Baptist Church of Lookout Mountain.The oldest church on Lookout Mountain has relocated to the inner city in an effort to attract more people and increase its chances of survival.
"Ninety-nine percent of our people were coming from the valley to the mountain, and so it made sense to come to the valley," says the Rev. Jeffrey Jefferson, pastor of the historically black Lookout Mountain First Baptist Church, now called The Ark Church.
The late Rev. E.H. Dial established the church at 205 N. Bragg Ave. in 1904, and it operated for more than a century until relocating last year to 2200 Rawlings Ave. in Avondale and changing its name.
Relocation meant leaving a sanctuary where the median household income is more than double that of the state - $117,119 vs. $48,547, according to City-Data.com. In Avondale, more than a third of residents live in poverty.
"We just want to meet people where they are," says Jefferson.
"We felt like there wasn't any room to grow on the mountain," adds head deacon and Lookout Mountain resident Reuben Lawrence. "We decided to go to the valley where we could do Christ's work."
He explains that several blacks worked on the mountain in the 1940s and 1950s as housekeepers and yardmen. And some of them lived on the mountain. Those residents and workers made up the majority of the Lookout Mountain First Baptist congregation.
But as years passed, fewer blacks came to the mountain for jobs, and the number of black residents decreased.
By the time the church left the mountain last February, attendance had decreased from its peak of 75 to 100 members to about two dozen people. And of those two dozen parishioners, most drove up from Chattanooga. When the church relocated, Lawrence was the only person attending who lives on the mountain.
He estimates there were at least two dozen black-owned homes on the mountain before the early 2000s. Now the count is about three, he says.
Lawrence has four adult children, but like many others who once attended the church, they have moved away, he says.
Lawrence grew up on the mountain and recalls being baptized at the church in 1945 at age 10.
Unum Vice President Gary Godin purchased Lookout Mountain First Baptist for $289,250 in February 2017, according to the Hamilton County Register of Deeds Office. He plans to remodel the structure into a residence.
"It's a beautiful community," he says. "I think the church has a lot of history. I hope to keep enough character of the church building and still have the feel of a good home."
The Ark Church met in a few temporary locations after leaving the mountain because the building it purchased, the old Franklin-Strickland Funeral Home on Rawlings, wasn't ready for occupancy until June 2017.
However, the congregation has been settled in its new location since then. They start Sunday School at 9:30 a.m. and Sunday worship at 11 a.m. On first Sundays, they have an evening service at 6. Wednesday night Bible study also starts at 6.
Five people have joined the church since it moved, Jefferson says. He also envisions restarting a prison ministry and food pantry, two ministries that operated at the Lookout Mountain site.
Retired recreation facility manager and church trustee David Crutcher heads efforts to involve more youth. He anticipates hosting Vacation Bible Schools, establishing a partnership with the Avondale Recreation Center to assist youth there and hosting outdoor events in the church parking lot this spring.
Crutcher lived on the mountain for more than 20 years before relocating to the valley.
He explains that the church is so optimistic in its plans for growth that they have immediate plans to renovate the building and install a full kitchen area.
Most of the congregation is over age 40. But Jefferson isn't discouraged in his goal to increase membership. He plans to use the members he has to attract more people and anticipates nearly doubling church attendance by this time next year.
"Sometimes it's hard to get people to come to the mountain, and we saw the handwriting on the wall," he says. "Even one of the other Baptist churches that was always there, they closed some time ago. So we didn't want that to be us, so we decided to come on down to the valley and start working."
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.