About
Grace Baptist Church in Tullahoma, TN
Mission Statement--Reaching people
for Jesus Christ and teaching them to be productive in the family of
God.
Vision Statement--Sharing God's
grace in Tullahoma.
In Grace We Grow
Click on the image below to view Church History Slideshow.
Church History
On February 27, 1955 a group of twenty people met in a store
building on N. Washington St., in Tullahoma, and started a
new congregation. Some of them were members of the
Hickerson Memorial church who had a "heart" for missions and
a new church work. Two months later, the group became
a mission of Highland Baptist in Tullahoma. On May 4,
1955 the Grace Baptist Mission called its first pastor,
Elmer Morris. By October that year, Grace had 49
members and 94 enrolled in Sunday School. Over the course of
the next two years, the young Mission continued to meet in
the store building but they struggled and the members of
Highland Baptist, contributed over $5,000 to keep them
going. With a grand of $2,000 from the Tennessee
Baptist Convention the young mission purchased some land on
Ovoca Road and secured a building site. Soon after
that, the members of both Grace and Highland worked to
construct the first unit of the building. It consisted
of 8 classrooms and a small sanctuary. By 1957, the
membership had grown from 20 members to 187 members so the
church voted to start building the second unit of their
facility, which included more classrooms. On October
7, 1957 the Grace Mission was constituted as a church and on
October 17, 1957 Grace became a member of the Duck River
Baptist Association of churches. By this time the
church was averaging 146 in Sunday School. In the
summer of 1958, the first group of deacons were ordained.
Joe Armstrong, Vanis Smith, Windell Jarvis, R.E. Gilbert,
H.R. Young, Bernard Daniel, and Johnnie Lightfoot. On
September 21, 1960 the church began constructing a parsonage
on a lot on Hillwood , which had been donated to the church.
Twelve years later, in 1972, under the direction of Pastor
Jewell Pruitt the church built the present sanctuary.
The church saw it's most significant growth under Dr. Jerry
Tidwell (1990-1993) and the membership and Sunday School
attendance doubled and it was during his ministry that the
Grace Outreach Center was constructed in 1992. Today
the church has over 1300 members with an average of 342 in
Sunday School and 450 in worship.
Grace Baptist Pastors:
| Elmer Morris |
1957-1958 |
| Louis Rideout |
1959-1964 |
| Dave Smith |
1965-1966 |
| Don Wilson |
1967-1969 |
| Jewel Pruitt |
1970-1973 |
| Johnny Young |
1973-1981 |
| Russell Flatt |
1982-1986 |
| Charles Baxter, Jr |
1987-1989 |
| Jerry Tidwell |
1990-1993 |
| Mike Gass |
1994-1997 |
| Max Brand |
1999-2000 |
| Tim McGehee |
2001-present |
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