Report on Sunday's church closings

I witnessed the last services of two congregations on Sunday, both celebrating what the churches accomplished over the years.  I counted 43 present at East Lake United Methodist Church, which began in 1908 as Ida M. Bass Memorial M.E. Church, South.  That's Methodist Episcopal Church, South, so named because M.E. churches north and south separated before the war between the states.  Because I was preaching Sunday, I couldn't very well take photos during the service.  The photo above is "after church."

I dashed across town after the 9:30 a.m. service at East Lake and got to Forrest Avenue exactly at 11:00 a.m. as their service was starting.  This church, which began in 1887, was once known as Hill City, the former name for North Chattanooga.  I was pastor at Forrest Avenue from 1987 to 1991 before the growth of the North Shore area.  Here's a photo John Shearer took to illustrate his wonderful article about the final services at East Lake UMC and Forrest Avenue UMC.  This is Conley Mercer with me.

John Shearer's photo of some worshipers before the service at East Lake shows my brother's family on the second pew:  my nephew Jimmy Setliffe, his daughter River and son Sam, my brother Jim and his wife Carol, and her father Charles Moses.  River was the youngest person present and noticed when I said my mother Mildred was ten when she attended the first service in the current building.  River pointed out that she is Mildred's great-granddaughter and also ten years old when the church closed.  Betty Madewell, present at the closing service, told me she was christened at the first service in this building on Easter Sunday, April 8, 1928.  The church history says the sermon preached that day by the Rev. Jack Anderson was entitled "A House Not Made with Hands."  I used that scripture (2 Corinthians 5:1, 17-20) for the closing sermon, picking up on later verses in the same chapter to make the point that the bricks are not what's important -- we who comprise the church take the spirit of love with us, wherever we go.

Jim and Jimmy are both interested in historical items, like this bronze plaque in the foyer at the front door that dedicates the organ to those in the church who served in World War Two. The picture below shows the name of my father, William Elmer Setliffe, Jr., who came home from the Pacific after being in the Philippines and Japan.

To read other posts I've written about the two churches, click here.