The purchase, at the end of 2020, was a bright spot in a challenging year.   

The congregation’s history goes back to the late 1960’s when they first met in a dilapidated movie theater called the Lonesome Valley Jubilee. The theater had no heat, and was also home to country music shows on the weekends so it would be full of trash when church members arrived. Members would bring in torpedo-style kerosene heaters to warm the building before church services on cold days and since the speaker couldn’t be heard over the noise, they couldn’t run them during services—it got pretty chilly by the end of the service. Original Kingsport member, Darrell Renfro, says this building “holds the honor of being the worst church building” in which he’s ever attended services! Over the years the congregation met at the YMCA in Bristol, motel rooms and mainly in the IBEW Union hall, which Darrell says was “paradise in comparison to the Lonesome Valley Jubilee hall—it even had A/C.” 

In 1995 the congregation met in the basement of David and Denise Dobson’s home for a short while before finding a more permanent rental hall, the Renaissance Senior Center. Over the years, the biggest challenge with the senior center was having very little storage available so members had to haul all of the equipment back and forth every week. Also, the allotted time was restricted which didn’t allow for as much fellowship. In 2020 the hall was becoming more difficult to reserve at the times and days we needed to meet and had begun restricting numbers for our meetings.  

In the fall of 2020, a member of the congregation, David Gilmer, heard about a building that was no longer being used and had not been put on the market yet; he knew the owner and was able to negotiate a great purchase price. The Council of Elders approved the purchase and it was finalized Oct. 30, 2020. This building came with a large kitchen, large meeting room, padded chairs, a storage building and plenty of parking! It is set in the midst of a beautiful rolling countryside, which is just the cherry on top of this wonderful blessing. Our Kingsport congregation could not be more thankful to God for this sweet blessing.