Middle Valley Church of God, at 1703 Thrasher Pike in Hixson, will meet as a congregation on Sunday, at 10:30 a.m. in the church auditorium. All precautions including social separation, the availability of masks and gloves, and hand sanitizer will be made available, along with other needed precautions. Attendees will have an opportunity to join with others in singing and worship. ... (click for more)

Metropolitan Tabernacle Church will host a Freedom Celebration Service Sunday in its sanctuary Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Senior Pastor Steve Ball will preach a message titled "Freedom is Not Free." The praise and worship will be led by Worship Pastor's Adam and Olivia Aziz and Metro Praise. The church will have intense cleaning of high touch point areas, hand sanitizer stations, ... (click for more)

Coronavirus cases in Tennessee rose by 1,291, bringing the total to 51,431, state health officials said on Sunday. Of the total, 30,254 have recovered. There were nine more deaths in the state, bringing the total to 646. Officials said 11 more have been hospitalized - up to 2,871. Tennessee is approaching 900,000 on its testing program. Hamilton County has had 53 ... (click for more)

Sheriff Jim Hammond said Sunday afternoon he has no intention of stepping down, despite a letter from 38 preachers asking him to do so. The sheriff said he would not discuss individual cases of alleged racism and abuse on the part of his deputies, saying those cases are going through the courts. He said he has offered to meet with the pastors and other groups for a discussion ... (click for more)

Churches are classified for tax purposes as 501(c)(3) organizations. This means contributions to them are generally tax deductible and they pay no property taxes on their real estate facilities. In return for this there are certain restrictions they must follow, the most important being: "Specifically, 501(c)(3) organizations are prohibited from engaging in excessive political ... (click for more)

Due to my strong belief that ‘country comes before self,’ this rare issue of The Sunday Funnies is necessary because of Independence Day, but this week The Saturday Funnies will again appear. Our long-term readers know that the weekly funnies come from the emails that are shared during the week, thus the disclaimer But do 4th of July jokes get stale by the 5th? A crafty teacher ... (click for more)