Our History
In the summer of 1960, a few leaders from Central Baptist – Woodmore (Chattanooga) began a journey of faith in a rural area of Hamilton County near Georgetown. The first service of Meadowview Chapel was held at Meadowview Elementary School. The following summer, in August 1961, saw the dedication of our first building - a block and brick structure with seven classrooms, an assembly hall, two restrooms and a complete kitchen.
Meadowview Chapel became Meadowview Baptist Church ten years later in October of 1971 and joined the Hamilton County Baptist Association with fifty-four charter members. A new sanctuary was dedicated in 1978 with a seating capacity of 225. Thirteen years later, in November 1991, a new Educational Building was dedicated that included classrooms, a fellowship hall and a kitchen. By 1999, we had outgrown our sanctuary and were conducting two Sunday morning services to accommodate the people.
In the spring of 2000, we entered a stewardship campaign called “Forward in Faith." This campaign enabled us to construct the new Worship Center that includes a sanctuary with a seating capacity of six hundred plus additional educational space.
We conducted our first worship service in the new sanctuary March 14, 2004, with an attendance of 352. God has truly blessed our church and we thank God for the steady growth we continue to see in every area of ministry as we strive to spread His Word and love in our homes, families and community.
Our Beliefs:
GOD
We believe that there is only one living and true God. God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without divisions of nature, essence or being.
God the Father - Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
God the Son - Hebrews 1: 2-3 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
God the Spirit - Acts 1: 5, 8 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” … But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
SCRIPTURES
We believe that the Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God’s revelation of Himself to man.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
MAN
We believe that man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning, man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice, man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
SALVATION
1. Justification. The believer was saved when he, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, was spiritually born again by the power of the Spirit as a child of God. (Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God)
2. Sanctification. The believer is being saved from the dominion of sin, divinely preserved and sanctified. (Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me)
3. Glorification. The believer will be saved from the presence of sin when he is presented faultless in glory. (I Thessalonians 5:9-10 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.)
THE CHURCH
We believe that the true Church is composed of all persons who, through saving faith in Jesus Christ, have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Christ is the head of the church and we are all the members of His body.
1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Christ is the head of this church (Colossians 1:18), and we look to God’s Word in establishing the form of government for this local body. The only pattern for church leadership given in the New Testament is a plurality of God-ordained elders (see Acts 15:6). Nowhere in Scripture do we find the prevalent current church government forms where a local assembly is ruled by majority opinion or by a lone pastor. Biblically, the focal point of all church leadership is the elder as it is the elders who are charged with teaching, feeding and protecting the church body, and they are accountable to God on behalf of the church. For this reason, Meadowview Baptist Church is led by a plurality of God-ordained elders.
THE RETURN OF OUR LORD
We believe in the personal and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ, preceded by the rapture of the Church. The time of the rapture and of His coming is nowhere revealed; therefore, it is the duty of all believers to live in readiness
Matthew 24:36 "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
BIBLICAL MARRIAGE
Meadowview Baptist Church, in its autonomy, shall determine criteria for church membership and the process for admission and expulsion of members. Church membership shall not be available to those whose lifestyle is in conflict with the Church's statement of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000; this shall include membership ineligibility for one in a same-sex marriage, and those living in a homosexual or transgendered lifestyle. We affirm God's plan for marriage and sexual intimacy – one man, and one woman, for life. Homosexuality is not a "valid alternative lifestyle.”