The leaders of Grace Baptist Church & Academy announce a groundbreaking ceremony to be held this Saturday at 11 a.m.
On April 12, 2020, a tornado tore through the East Brainerd community destroying homes, businesses and the Grace Baptist campus. Of the 17 buildings that made up the church and school, only two were salvaged. The groundbreaking will mark the beginning of a construction project to replace Grace’s facilities that is expected to exceed $40 million.
“Over the past eight months, we have watched God take a ravaged part of our city and begin to transform it,” said GBC Senior Pastor Adam Love. “The Lord is allowing homes to be rebuilt, families to be resettled, and communities to start reclaiming their identities again. We are excited to announce to Chattanooga and our East Brainerd community that we are rising again from the rubble.”
Grace Academy Head of School Matt Pollock agrees, adding that the Grace campus has been an East Brainerd landmark for nearly 60 years, sitting as it does at a busy intersection.
“While we’ve been blessed to be able to continue our school ministry by holding classes at Morris Hill Baptist Church, we look forward to the day we can once again occupy our home on the corner of Shallowford and Jenkins,” said Mr. Pollock.
Both Mr. Pollock and Pastor Love point out that God has used the destruction of the tornado to bring about greater opportunities than the church and school otherwise would have had.
“God has been good in providing the funds for adding buildings to our church and school as they were needed over the years,” said Pastor Love. “As a result, all our buildings went up at different times, and many of them had become outdated. Now we will have new, state-of-the-art facilities that will be part of one cohesive, well planned-out campus. To God be the glory.”
Church and school leadership officials said they would like to thank Rardin & Carroll Architects, Tyson & Associates Construction Company, MAP engineering and many others for the help they have afforded the Grace community.
“We are excited to see what God is going to allow Grace Baptist to accomplish in the days ahead,” said Pastor Love. “We look forward to a Greater Grace as we rebuild and restore a place where God can be glorified and lives can be transformed by the power of the good news of God’s love for the world.”
Due to limitations for parking and liability issues at the construction site, the groundbreaking ceremony will not be a public event. The event will be streamed from the Church and Academy’s Facebook pages, and a produced video will be released later.