In recent years, the rolling farmland of Apison has given way to housing developments with curvy cul-de-sacs.
Now a big church is coming in. On Saturday evening, Silverdale Baptist Church will hold its first service at its new campus in the East Hamilton County community, where census data shows the population and housing density have increased.
“We started looking for locations that were rapidly growing in our county but really didn’t have as many churches to meet the rapid growth of those areas,” Silverdale Baptist Church’s senior pastor, Tony Walliser, said by phone this week.
There was a time when people were happy to drive 30 minutes to a big mall-based megachurch, he said, but times have changed — and many churchgoers today like a more intimate worship experience. With its expansion into Apison, he said, Silverdale Baptist Church seeks to put the resources and infrastructure of a megachurch to the end of a local congregational experience.
Beyond its primary campus on Bonny Oaks Drive, century-old Silverdale Baptist had a satellite campus in St. Elmo when it purchased land and built a new church in North Ooltewah about seven years ago, Walliser said.