When Stuart Heights Baptist Church senior pastor Gary Jared attended Tennessee Temple University more than 30 years ago, the growth model of parent congregation Highland Park Baptist was numerous chapels throughout the Chattanooga area and beyond.
That idea wasn’t embraced at the time by other local churches, but a tweaked version of the idea has seen a renaissance throughout the country.
Jared’s church is in the forefront of that movement and, next Sunday, will open a third campus of the original Hixson Pike church in the Soddy-Daisy area.
“[Highland Park] got rid of their chapels,” he said. “Now, it’s the new wave. Instead of building big buildings, people are going with multisites.”
Oakwood Baptist Church of Chickamauga, Ga., is another local congregation growing under a similar model with congregations on South Germantown Road and in the Gateway Antiques & Collectibles Mall on Cloud Springs Road.