Tim Reid
Pastor Tim Reid, whose Mosaic Church was shut down after eight youths were shot nearby last Christmas Eve, said Friday he is operating from a new North Chattanooga location and is still under the watchful eye of Chattanooga Police.
He told the Brainerd Kiwanis Club that undercover officers often attend the Sunday 5 p.m. services and uniformed officers wait outside in squad cars with sirens blaring at the location at Tremont and Mississippi.
Pastor Reid said he is also continuing martial arts, art and music classes for young people and has added basketball in the church gym. But he said he is shying away from a controversial Club Fathom music program out of respect for neighbors and the churches who had helped him since his eviction. He listed Northshore Fellowship, Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church and Northside Baptist.
He said the Mosaic young people with interest in entertainment or arts careers are taken on field trips to Disneyworld and to the Tyler Perry studio in Atlanta.
He said he still intends to find his own location and resume the music program, saying that is the best way to reach young people - especially inner-city black youth.
The speaker said he opened Mosaic Church at 412 Market St. in 2001 after training in a similar Mosaic Church in Los Angeles. He said it was when downtown was first getting revitalized. He said by the time he was forced out of business a decade later "we were literally surrounded by bars."
He said he started operating Club Fathom mainly as a way to reach black youth. He said he tried to introduce them to Christian rap and Christian rock, but he said, "I also allowed them to play their own music - secular rap and secular rock."
Pastor Reid said after the shooting incident, he was told that no gang member could enter his church. He said, "Gang members, drug dealers and prostitutes should be welcome in the church, though I don't condone their activities."
He said during the 10 years downtown there was one incident in the club where someone was hit and another where someone got a black eye. But he said there were never any stabbings or shootings inside the club.
But he said he and his counselors have been beaten up and "I had a gun shoved in my face."
The speaker said at the Christmas Eve event there were 500 youths attending. He said other churches would love to have that many youths in church. He said he was able to do so "because I didn't have any competition" for those type youths. He said some churches would sometimes "have a photo op" to say they were helping black youth, but that was about all it amounted to.
He said he had security staff as well as paying some city police officers to help patrol. At the event, he said, 13 youths acknowledged they were dropping out of gangs and joining the Mosaic gang.
He said there were no problems inside that night and he let the crowd out at 11:40 so the young people could meet the midnight curfew. He said those from the club were standing along the sidewalk when gang members drove by and began firing. He said it was a warning for them to stay away from the Christian club.
He said it was no surprise that no one was seriously hurt, saying the gang members intentionally shot low to avoid killing anyone.
Afterward, he said city inspectors presented a long list of building corrections that would have cost "tens of thousands of dollars." He said the building had previously passed inspection. He said the church "did not pay enough property tax to support protection from the politicians."
Pastor Reid, who said he has been married 15 years to his wife Kim and has two sons at Brainerd Baptist school, said his theology is conservative, but when it comes to methods to reach young people he is "super liberal."