After feeling called to come to Chattanooga and begin a church since he was 19, the Rev. Russ Fairbanks moved to Ooltewah last July to start The Cross Church at Ooltewah.
“We finally made our way down here after really sensing the Lord was saying ‘it’s time,'” said Fairbanks. “We left a very comfortable life.”
There is no physical building for the church yet, but Fairbanks said he is working to establish a core group of people who support the church’s motto that “lost people matter most.”
“We aren’t as concerned about being hung up on tradition,” said Fairbanks. “I think we’re more concerned about winning lost people to Christ. That’s what this church is based around.”
Fairbanks said the church will be creative in its methods of reaching lost people, but conservative in its message.
Currently the church is meeting Sunday evenings at 6 p.m. in Fairbanks’ home, but he said he plans to move meetings to a different location soon and incorporate members from other churches to worship with the core group of The Cross Church at Ooltewah.
Fairbanks said he hopes to have at least 25 families as part of the core group before beginning a Sunday morning service. The Cross Church at Ooltewah is a church of the Nazarene, said Fairbanks.
“We are Protestant evangelical,” said Fairbanks. “Wesleyan is the best way to describe our theology.”
Fairbanks said he plans on erecting three unmistakable crosses outside the church once it is built.
“We are a mainline Protestant denomination, we love Jesus and we believe in getting people saved and baptized, part of the kingdom and sold out for Christ,” said Fairbanks. “And I don’t know what better says that than the cross.”
For more information about The Cross Church at Ooltewah, visit www.thecrosschurch.cc