| McCalla
Avenue Baptist Church 60th Anniversary |
 |
McCalla Avenue Baptist was one of the strongest churches in East Knoxville for the first 50 years of its existence. It had a significant influence on the entire Burlington community. On October 4, 1984, McCalla Avenue merged with its parent church, Bell Avenue Baptist, to form Chilhowee Hills Baptist Church. The McCalla Avenue Baptist building was sold, and the merged congregation meets in the former Bell Avenue building on Asheville Highway.
The information in these pages was taken from a history of McCalla Avenue Baptist prepared in celebration of its 60th Anniversary in 1973.
| Greetings from the Pastor |
October 31, 1973
Dear McCalla Family and Friends,
It is my privilege as pastor to write these words. Sixty years as man reckons time is six decades. During these decades many people have contributed to the growth of God's Church at McCalla. Only God could give proper recognition. He alone knows all that has contributed to his glory and our good since the church was organized on November 9, 1913.
However, we will try to express to God, our friends, and ourselves something of the meaning and spirit of what has made McCalla Avenue a great church. You will find this in the 60th Anniversary Program.
On behalf of the Church and myself, I want to welcome back to the Church our former pastors, members, and men who have gone out to preach God's word. We welcome them with open arms and hearts.
Thanking God for our rich heritage of the past and looking forward to the future, I am
Your pastor,John Buell
| Foreword |
The preparation of this book commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of McCalla Avenue Baptist Church presented several problems. How do you include all of the things that have made our church great? What events do you leave out, and what things do you include? These and other questions came to mind as we began.
We have, therefore, taken the approach that as the church passed through its various stages of growth in building the physical plant, it was also passing through comparable stages of inward growth in its membership.
Only through the growth in the Christian life, through love, through devotion and dedication, through Christian concern for the lost, through mission efforts, would God have so richly blessed his people.
On the pages that follow you will find pictures of the growth of our physical plant, the names of those men who have so valiantly led this people as their pastors, those who have served in other capacities of leadership. We have also included some unusual items of interest that have involved the church and/or members of the church.
While this in no way represents the entire scope of the sixty years McCalla has been ministering to this community, we hope that on its pages you will find things that will help you to recall to mind other experiences you personally had as a member of the church.
| Links to Contents |
- Our Beginning
- Brief History
- God Gave the Increase
- Our First Mission
- From Vacation Bible School in a Tent to...
- Our Second Mission
- We Grew...
- ...and Grew...
- ...and Grew
- These Men of God Have Led Us
- Staff Members, Church Secretaries, Organists, and Pianists
- Items of Interest
| More History |
- Read a very interesting, detailed history of McCalla Avenue Baptist Church, written by Jimmy Burkhardt in 1971.
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All HTML code on this page was created by and copyrighted ©2000-2002 to Billie R. McNamara. All rights reserved. The text and graphics are from the 60th Anniversary Celebration booklet prepared by McCalla Avenue Baptist Church in 1973. Please direct all questions and comments to Ms. McNamara. Background graphic image was borrowed from A-1 Icon Archive. Used by permission.