DALTON — After 2 1/2 years of renting or leasing space, The River Community Church held a ceremonial groundbreaking for a new 33,000-square-foot facility Tuesday morning.
The decidedly nondenominational congregation that was born out of the schism in the United Methodist Church has grown to about 350 people in attendance on an average Sunday, Pastor Brian Clark said.
“We felt like there was a need for a church in Dalton and in this region that was reaching people that no one else was reaching,” Clark said. “And we feel like we’ve seen that come to fruition over these last few years.”
The new building will be on Riverburch Parkway, visible from the North Bypass. Clark said the location is strategic since people from Murray, Catoosa, Gordon and Walker counties pass by daily, so the church is easily accessible for people from all over the region.
The new church was sparked out of frustration with the United Methodist Church, which underwent a split a few years ago as conservative members became disillusioned by what they saw as a lack of adherence to a theology that forbid openly gay clergy and church-sanction of same-sex marriage.
In North Georgia, there were also disputes over the process, known as disaffiliation, convincing Clark it was time to begin a new congregation rather than stay with Dalton First United Methodist Church.
Dalton congregation breaks ground on new $13M facility
James Tyson, president and CEO of Tyson and Associates Construction, told the crowd gathered at the groundbreaking that foundation work was already being done, and the project should be complete by December 2026.
About 30% of the work Tyson’s construction company takes on involves churches, he said, and the project fits with his company’s mission to begin with.
“The heart of this church is a good heart. These folks are good people,” Tyson said in an interview. “I just felt like, man, how can I not go build my own church if they want me to?”
Tyson said he and his family began attending The River two Sundays after the church was born and became members shortly after.
“Because this is my church, and Lord willing, I’ll be attending this church for the next 40-plus years,” Tyson said. “Quality means a great deal to me and to my company. I want to deliver the best building we possibly can.”
Tyson said he is looking forward to the greater impact The River will be able to have in the community with a permanent home.
The process of deciding to build a permanent building began about a year into the congregation’s existence, Tyson said, after the group had gained its bearings and identity as a church and started seeing increased attendance. At that point, it felt as if the church had a solid foundation and would last, and within six months, a building committee was formed and the ball was rolling, Tyson said.
Tommy Willingham, a founding member of the church and one of the organizers of the funding campaign, said the initial campaign in November 2024 raised about $6 million of the $13 million needed to build the facility. The campaign was called “Building a Legacy.”
“We said that’s exactly what we’re doing. That what we start here, generations beyond us will be recipients of,” Willingham said. “We had people who God had led from other churches, and we celebrated the legacy they came from, and we looked at what we were doing as carrying those legacies forward together.”
After the first campaign, the church hired an architect and the construction company and began the process, Willingham said. Willingham, a retired pastor and former director of new church development in the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church, said he felt God was calling him to the area to create something that would reach a broader community.
“The denomination we were a part of had its beginnings not as a denomination but as a movement of God, and evolved itself into a denomination,” Willingham said. “So, I felt like this was just a movement of God and wanted to be part of the beginning of that.”
The church began in March 2023 after a group, including Clark, left Dalton First United Methodist Church following an announcement by the United Methodist Church North Georgia Conference that said member churches would no longer be allowed to disaffiliate. Clark, who was pastoring Dalton First United Methodist at the time, resigned.
Clark and a bloc of the church’s members walked away and began a new congregation, and the group asked Clark to be their pastor, he said in an interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press shortly after The River Community Church was established.
For the first year, the congregation rented multipurpose space at The Mill at Crown Garden in Dalton. The church began leasing space in a shopping center at 2410 Cleveland Highway and has been there for nearly a year and a half, Clark said, and will be at that location until the new campus is completed.
Contact religion reporter Kailee Shores at kshores@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.