story and photo by tony cartledge, Contributing Editor
Surprising Grace A church start with a history HARRISBURG, N.C. — Walk into Hickory Ridge High School on a Sunday morning and you’ll find all of the things you’d expect of a new church start on a more or less contemporary model.
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riendly greeters wait at the door. Clear directional signs, a well-staffed welcome table, and fresh coffee and pastries add to the warmth. Smiling church members chat in the halls and show the way to a Sunday school class where adults sit in student desks and discuss the latest Nurturing Faith Bible Study lesson. The school auditorium has undergone a weekly transformation into worship space. A praise team sings, accompanied by a piano, a keyboard and a guitar. The pastor plays drums. Words to the mix of choruses and hymns are projected on a screen flanked by worship banners. All seems typical until you scan the congregation and realize that most congregants are past retirement age, their youthful enthusiasm crowned with gray hair. This is Grace Crossing Baptist Fellowship, and it’s going on 112 years old, but acting much younger. It is, as members like to say, “a church start with a history.” Grace Crossing was born just east of downtown Charlotte in 1901. It began as Belmont Baptist Church, but moved within a year to Pegram Street and became Louise Baptist Church. A dozen years later, the growing congregation moved again and became Allen Street Baptist Church. The church continued to grow, but as the neighborhoods surrounding it changed, the facilities were sold in 1968 and the congregation moved yet again, becoming Shamrock Drive Baptist Church. Urban flight to the suburbs continued, however. Many of the church’s members moved
Pastor Jason Blanton hopes Grace Crossing’s new facility and service-oriented approach can make it an anchor for the growing community along I-485, east of Charlotte.
east of the city, and those who remained struggled to connect with the evolving community. The church decided to move yet again. After a protracted effort, the building was sold in 2006 and the congregation made brief stops at an elementary school and a Presbyterian church gym before settling in at Hickory Ridge High School in Harrisburg, arriving just as the school prepared to open in 2007. Change continued. The pastor left in 2008, and so did many of the younger adults. Undaunted, the remaining 60 or 70 members persevered. They persuaded veteran pastor and professor Chuck Bugg to serve as interim pastor, and in the early fall of 2010, called Jason Blanton to serve as pastor. Blanton’s easy-going manner relates well to people of all ages, and his administrative acumen got the church on a sound financial track. They no longer dip into reserves for operating expenses, but ended 2012 in the black, with a surplus for the building fund. The church owns 16 acres of highly visible
land at the junction of I-485 and Rocky River Road in East Charlotte. The first building of a multi-phase building plan is under construction, and the church hopes to hold services there on Easter Sunday. The congregation of Grace Crossing is “a remarkably resilient and faithful group of people,” Blanton said, people who want to offer the community a needed voice of grace and service from a posture of theological humility. A ball field for community use is part of the initial building phase, and plans for an organic community garden are in the works. Blanton hopes the building can become a local resource for weddings, homeowner association meetings, and other gatherings. Blanton believes the congregation is on the right track, and that natural growth will follow as the church seeks to finally settle in and become “an anchor for the community.” Grace Crossing is affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the CBF of North Carolina. BT
“Grace Crossing’s congregation is ‘a remarkably resilient and faithful group of people.’” Feature | 41