On June 26,
1938, Clingan Ridge Baptist Church was organized
in the yard of Mrs. Inez Vaughn on what is now
church property. The original church building
was built on land facing Gutherie Dr., sold to
the church by J. P. Rayfield for the cost of
$5. Today’s church building is still located on
the same city block facing Georgetown Road. Its
name comes from the nearby ridge settled by the
Alexander A. Clingan family in 1835 shortly
after Bradley County was founded.
Clingan
Ridge Baptist Church chose Rev. Edgar Colloms as
its first pastor. He began his pastorate on
July 3, 1938 with twelve charter members. Over
the years the church has acquired the entire
city block of its current location. The present
building was constructed in 1957 with two major
remodeling project occurring in 1977 and 1994.
During its sixty-year history, Clingan Ridge has
been blessed with seventeen different pastors.
The current church membership is 960+.
On September 10,
1999, the Lord richly blessed our church with
Ricky Vaughn as our new pastor. With him and
his family came love, leadership, compassion and
a strong vision to win the lost to Jesus. God
also opened the door to make Josh Cornelius our
full-time youth minister. He and April have
already accomplished so much with our youth.
Every service is filled with such a sweet
spirit. Our choir is under the leadership of
Kenneth Kesley, Minister of Music. All of
today’s blessings are built on our rich heritage
of yesteryear.
Clingan
Ridge is a vibrant, growing congregation. There
are active mission groups for all ages, youth
group, senior adult group, as well as Women’s
Ministry, a Men’s Ministry, Awana (3year old -
6th grade) and a Youth
Ministries team consisting of puppetry, signing
and drama teams.
Respectfully
submitted,
Larry Kincaid,
Church Historian