Temple Baptist Church
Chattanooga, TN 37407

After deliberate courtship, two historic Chattanooga churches merge into one
October 17, 2023 at 9:00 p.m. by Andrew Schwartz

In recent months, Temple Baptist Church of Chattanooga and Duncan Park Baptist Church of East Ridge have been courting one another.

On Sunday in East Ridge, James Rushing presided over their union.

Charity Baptist Church was born.

"The only person that likes change is a wet baby," Rushing, the church's pastor, said by phone Tuesday.

But he said the new congregation, now convening at what was Duncan Park Baptist Church's location, was achieved through respectful dialogue, intentional boundary-setting and deliberate pacing, such that neither party seemed to be dragging its feet — or moving too fast.

When the two independent Baptist congregations became one Sunday, Rushing, deacons, their families and anyone who wished to join them signed the church's founding charter:

"Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior and on the profession of our faith in him, having been baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we do now in the presence of God and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully covenant with one another, as one body in Christ."