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Lafayette Church Of Christ

212 Church Street
615-666-2003

The Lafayette Church of Christ was organized on Saturday, June 19, 1869, through the efforts of Evangelist Isaac T. Reneau. Initially this group of Christians met in a Baptist church building but in December of 1872 plans were formulated for their own permanent building.

A site on the square was selected and a building was constructed of hewn logs for rafters and pillars with weather boarding. All the wood was yellow poplar. (Buddy Jent used some wood salvaged from the original building to build the display cabinet in the foyer.) The seats in the original building were solid planks two inches thick, held together with nails. The group moved into this building on January 11, 1874, with about sixty-five in attendance.

That building was located on the property presently occupied by the Macon Bank and Trust Company and the Chamberlain Law Office. A baptistry was added to the building in 1935. The building was remodeled and the outside was bricked in 1955.

God blessed the congregation and because of continued growth the decision was made in February of 1963 to build a new building in another location. A lot on Church Street, originally known as the Alex Jenkins property, was purchased, and a building with a seating capacity of 350 was erected in the summer of 1963. Anticipating additional growth, about seven and one fourth acres of the adjacent Bratton property was purchased at public auction in July of 1979.

On Monday, November 9, 1981 construction began on the newest addition, which consisted of an auditorium with a seating capacity of five hundred twenty and an office wing. On Sunday morning, August 8, 1982, six hundred fifty-six people heard Roger MacKenzie preach the first sermon in our present auditorium. The old auditorium was initially remodeled and used for classrooms. Also in 1982, the white building located on the Bratton property was remodeled and used for classes and as a fellowship hall.

In 1989 a ''training room'' for young children was added at the rear of our present auditorium and a baptistry was added to this building in 1991. In 1997, the present educational building was remodeled to provide us with two refurbished restrooms, a new church library, four new offices, two new classrooms, a teacher's resource room, and additional storage space. By God's grace, we're still growing.

In the late spring and early summer of 2003, the building known as the White Building was demolished. Construction began on a fellowship hall and multipurpose building, which was completed and occupied by the church in September 2003. The new Fellowship Hall was first used on a congregation wide basis in September of 2003 at Friends and Family Day. Our present minister, Jerry Mercer, was the speaker and the attendance was 546. Since then the building has been used for various fellowship functions, meetings, receptions and other church social events and activities.

The Church has experienced solid growth in 2003 and 2004.


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