On Pulaski Highway in Columbia
South Gate Church of Christ meets on Pulaski Highway, the main road entering the south side of Columbia, Tennessee. The motto that defines the congregation - "Striving to be 'one in Christ Jesus'" from Galatians 3:28 - captures its self-understanding as a community working to live out one shared faith in Christ. South Gate welcomes anyone searching for a church home to come and worship alongside the body.
From a Storefront on Mapleash Avenue to the South Side
South Gate traces its roots to May 10, 1953, when the Mapleash church of Christ held its first meeting in a small store building on Mapleash Avenue. Brother F.H. Curtis spoke, roughly fifty people attended, and the offering came to about $150. The Riverside congregation (now North View) had decided earlier that year to take the gospel into the Ninth Street area; volunteers Wayne Ball, Clarence Holman, J.C. Cheek, Howard Maxwell, and Jimmy Wilson carried out that work. The building was leased to Riverside for twelve months to test the interest. Clyde Balderson became the first regular preacher that September.
Within months the property that would become the old Eastside building was purchased, and the congregation took the name Eastside church of Christ. The new building was dedicated in December 1954, additional classrooms were added in 1958, and a five-hundred-seat auditorium was dedicated in 1968.
At the turn of the century, the leaders decided the group needed to move. In 2001, twenty acres were purchased on Pulaski Highway. After years of planning and preparation, the first worship service was held in the new South Gate Church of Christ building on November 18, 2012. The name changed, but the purpose and dedication of the people have stayed the same.
What to Expect on a Sunday
Worship gathers three times a week at the Pulaski Highway building. Sunday morning worship begins at 9:00 am, with Bible study following at 10:15 am. A Sunday evening service meets at 5:30 pm, and a Wednesday Bible study gathers at 6:30 pm.
The aim during services is to focus on the Lord: praising Him with voices, petitioning Him in prayer, and listening to messages drawn from His word. Services are livestreamed on YouTube, and a video archive of lessons going back to January 2020 is hosted on the church's YouTube channel. Older lessons can be heard through the South Gate church of Christ Podcast.
What South Gate Believes
South Gate describes itself as a nondenominational congregation of disciples striving to practice New Testament Christianity in honor of Jesus Christ. Members hold the Bible to be God's revealed will and the roadmap to a right relationship with Him, and want to love the Lord with all their heart while loving their neighbors. The church has no set creed or headquarters outside the Bible; Jesus Christ is recognized as the head of the church. An eldership selected from the membership leads the congregation, ministers serve in various capacities, and every member is considered called to serve others.
Elders, Ministers, and Deacons
The eldership is made up of Richard Farris, Greg Lusk, Randy Jones, Jim Pollard, Scott Dahlstrom, Jerry Ballard, David Thomas, and Dennis Thomason.
John Thomas serves as pulpit minister. He double-majored in Bible (Missions) and Kinesiology at Freed-Hardeman University, later received a master's in Education, and taught Bible and coached for seventeen years at Columbia Academy. He began attending South Gate in 2001 as the part-time youth minister, served as youth deacon for ten years, and became pulpit minister in 2015.
Joe Macer, the associate minister, was born and raised in Mt. Carmel, Illinois. He graduated from David Lipscomb College in 1977 with a major in mathematics and a minor in physics, later earning a master's in education. He and his wife Rosemary married in 1978, raised four children, and moved to Columbia in 1988. He preached for the Southpoint Church of Christ for nearly fifteen years before joining Eastside/South Gate as associate minister in September 2003. He retired from public school teaching after thirty-eight years and still teaches the Wednesday night adult class.
Jerry Ballard, an elder since 2020, began work as the Education and Family minister in July 2023. A Freed-Hardeman graduate with a BBA in Finance (1997) and an MA in Education (2003), he taught and coached for twenty-five years at three schools and previously served as youth minister for the Birdwell's Chapel church of Christ in White House, Tennessee.
Jesse Bates joined the ministry team in August 2023 as youth minister. A 2021 Freed-Hardeman graduate with a degree in Biblical Studies (Youth and Family Ministry emphasis) and a minor in Psychology, he married his wife Emilee in the summer of 2024.
The deacons serving alongside the elders are Gary Boyd, Mark Brown, Kyle Butt, Blake Daniels, Byran Farris, Shannon Fuller, Nathan Hixson, Alex Jones, Jason Kelley, Mike Lyle, John Massey, Ray Rummage, Trent Thomason, and Shaun Townsend.
Children's and Student Ministry
The children's ministry centers on helping children "know Jesus, grow to be like Him, and go serve Him." Classes are designed to teach the fundamentals about God and His word, helping children understand God's love for them. The program runs Vacation Bible School, Youth for Christ leadership training, and Tweens activities, and gives children opportunities to serve others.
The student ministry has its own presence at southgatesm.org and is led by Jesse and Emilee Bates, who focus on building relationships with students and their families.
Missions Across Four Continents
South Gate supports a wide circle of mission efforts. Each year, members travel to help at the City of Children Orphanage in Ensenada, Mexico, a home that houses and cares for approximately eighty children. The group helps maintain the facilities, runs evening Vacation Bible School, and assists Baha missions.
Ben and Nancy Fronczek have been supported for more than twenty-five years as they have preached and reached out in New York, Vermont, and now Johnstown, New York. Alex and Ana Girodo have been supported since 2015; Alex preaches and works with the church in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, filling roles as song leader, preacher, and Bible class teacher, and helping lead song leading conferences and preacher training camps. Dino and Mata Tzanetos have been supported for over thirty years in Athens, Greece, serving a group that meets in two Sunday services, one in Greek and one in English, with members from North Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Asia, and running a school of preaching and a prison ministry. Kent and Rachel O'Donnell, supported since the late 1990s, serve the church in Palmerston North, New Zealand, leading mission campaigns, family camps, and personal Bible studies.
The congregation also supports Apologetics Press, World Christian Broadcasting, the Tennessee Children's Home with its four campuses serving displaced families and youth, and the Bible Department at Columbia Academy.
Disaster Relief on Wheels
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, South Gate has been involved in disaster relief on a small scale, and the work grew in earnest in August 2021. Members took a portable tent, grill, and volunteers to the Waverly flood and served over two thousand meals. From there the work continued: clean-up in Benton, Kentucky, in December 2021; the purchase of a mobile kitchen in spring 2022; nine hundred thirty-six meals prepared in three days in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, after a flood; two thousand one hundred meals in Selma, Alabama after a tornado in January 2023; seven hundred fifty meals in Readyville, Tennessee, in April 2023; and four hundred meals in Clarksville, Tennessee, in December 2023.
After a tornado struck Columbia on the evening of May 8, 2024, Emergency Management called asking the church to feed roughly two hundred first responders. Volunteers were on site by 10 a.m. the next day and transitioned from serving first responders to feeding area victims over the following days. Over twenty-six different people volunteered to cook and distribute meals, with another forty to fifty helping with clean-up. When there are no disasters, the mobile kitchen prepares meals for the People's Table, Back to School efforts, and Vacation Bible School meals.
Getting Connected and Giving
Visitors checking in for the first time can do so through an online form. A directory of members is available online, and Men's and Women's Involvement Forms help newcomers plug into the work of the church. Sign-ups for events and Bible studies are managed through Church Center, and the building is available to rent for special occasions. Those wishing to support the work financially can give online through Rebel Give by linking a bank account, drop cash or checks in the box in the foyer, or mail an offering to 2700 Pulaski Highway, Columbia, TN 38401.