In Fayetteville, Georgia, Fayette Presbyterian Church is known for a Sunday worship tradition that pairs an orderly liturgy with music that changes from week to week, ranging from traditional hymns and choral pieces to contemporary praise songs. Founded in 1957, the congregation is also known for education, family participation, practical assistance, and mission work that reaches from Fayetteville to Nicaragua and Haiti.
From a Mobile Chapel on Redwine Road
The church began when Robert K. Price asked Greater Atlanta Presbytery to help establish a church in Fayetteville. On Sunday, May 19, 1957, twenty people attended the first service, held in a mobile chapel parked at the Price home on Redwine Road. The congregation moved to the Fayette County High School music room in 1958, then to Fayetteville Masonic Lodge in 1959, where it was chartered. Sunday school, a youth choir, and Wednesday night prayer meetings began as the church worked toward a permanent home.
A 96-year-old gentleman offered the church 4.5 acres for $2,500. After the purchase, a campus-style Education Building was completed in 1962 and dedicated on Thanksgiving Day. A sanctuary and Fellowship Hall followed in 1973. By the late 1980s, repairs were needed and the congregation had outgrown the sanctuary. The property was sold, the congregation found a new property, and National Heights Baptist Church rented its facility for worship. Ground was broken on the new site in March 1995. Thanksgiving was celebrated in the Fellowship Hall and classroom building, and the new sanctuary was dedicated on September 29, 1996.
South Fayette Comes Home to Fayette Presbyterian
In 2000, five Fayette Presbyterian families helped start South Fayette Presbyterian Church, which first met at Calvin Center in Hampton. It was chartered on March 30, 2003. In 2005, its name became The Summitt of South Fayette, and on September 17, 2006, the congregation moved into a new building on Highway 92 South. Its stated hope was to serve as a community center where needs could be met and to project a more contemporary image. In May 2020, South Fayette merged with Fayette Presbyterian. The merger brought the two congregations' talent, friendship, and love of community into one church family and remains an important part of Fayette Presbyterian's continuing story.
A Sunday of Liturgy, Music, and Mutual Recognition
At 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, worship begins in the sanctuary. The service follows a comfortable, structured pattern that the church calls a liturgy, but it describes worship as vibrant and full of life. Music changes weekly and includes traditional hymns, choral pieces, and contemporary praise songs led by guitars, trumpet, piano, organ, and drums. Creative expression also has a place: alongside Scripture, prayers, and a sermon, worship may include community storytelling, silence, casual conversation with a neighbor, and art.
Communion is shared on the first Sunday of every month, and everyone is welcome at the table. After worship, the narthex, the church's lobby and entryway, becomes a place for coffee, tea, and conversation. It is a warm, relaxed setting for meeting people, catching up, and connecting.
Children at the Center of Worship
Children are always welcome in the sanctuary and are invited to participate in worship. The church describes this welcome simply: “We want to invite children as Jesus did.” If little children need a break, a cozy parlor beside the sanctuary offers coloring sheets and building blocks. The room is comfortable and relaxed, and nursing mothers and parents of young children can still see and hear the service. This arrangement gives families a practical way to participate together without requiring young children to leave the worship entirely.
A nursery attendant is part of the church staff, and Sunday school remains part of the congregation's regular Sunday rhythm.
Learning Before the Sunday Service
Education has been part of Fayette Presbyterian since its earliest meetings, when Sunday school and a youth choir began alongside Wednesday prayer. A formal Education Building was completed on the first campus in 1962. Adults gather each Sunday at 9:00 a.m. in classroom A-2. The Adult Sunday School class is open to everyone and has studied Scripture's message about wisdom and spiritual growth throughout life. Sunday School also begins at 9:30 a.m., before the 10:30 worship service.
A Campus Made for Worship, Learning, and Gathering
The present church home has distinct spaces for different parts of congregational life. Worship takes place in the sanctuary, Adult Sunday School uses classroom A-2, coffee and conversation happen in the narthex, and the family parlor sits beside the sanctuary. The classroom building and Fellowship Hall have also formed part of the campus, giving the congregation places for worship, learning, gathering, and shared service.
Those buildings have welcomed Kenneth Miller School for Special Needs children, numerous civic organizations, Scout troops, and quilters. AA and Al-Anon recovery ministries have been based there since their inception in Fayette County. The same campus that hosts Sunday worship also makes room for recovery meetings, education, community organization, and service to children and families.
A Pastor Returning Home and Musicians at the Organ
Rev. Ally Lee serves as interim pastor. A Fayette County native, she attended Samford University and Fuller Theological Seminary and holds an M.Div. and Certificate in Family Studies from Fuller. She was ordained in 2017 as a Minister of Word and Sacrament and served eleven years at Knox Presbyterian Church in Pasadena before serving as Stated Clerk for Administration of San Gabriel Presbytery and Co-Pastor of Interwoven New Worshipping Community. She returned to Georgia in 2023.
Music Director Jacob Winslett grew up in a music minister's home in Douglasville, played guitar in high school, and led worship in youth and adult settings. He earned a bachelor's degree in Human Relations at Atlanta Christian College, now Point University. Accompanist Chris Whitley developed his musicianship in piano, alto saxophone, double bass, cello, and bass guitar. At Fayette Presbyterian, he plays the pipe organ and accompanies the choir and other musicians. This music leadership supports a worship service in which the sound can move from organ and hymns to guitar, trumpet, piano, and drums.
Assistance Rooted in Community Partnerships
Rather than giving out cash, Fayette Presbyterian supports community partners in nine areas: financial assistance, food assistance, housing assistance, non-emergency healthcare, veterans assistance, prescription assistance, job assistance, serving the homeless, and other assistance.
The Clothes Closet and Food Pantry and the Fayette County Friendship Center for seniors began at the church. The congregation has also provided lunches for children and food for families, monitored a school ROAR store, and supported Relay for Life, Square Foot Ministries, and other local missions. ROAR stands for Respectful, Obedient, Attentive, Responsible.
Mission Work Beyond Fayette County
Mission teams have traveled to Nicaragua and Haiti. Their work has included digging wells and serving in schools and orphanages, with the stated aim of sharing the joy and message of Christ while meeting needs. These trips connect the church's history of practical service with a mission emphasis that reaches well beyond Fayetteville.
Seeing One Another as the Church's Calling
The church's clearest statement of purpose is its welcome: God calls the congregation to be a community that truly sees one another in moments of pure joy, quiet heartache, and everything in between. People are to feel seen, welcomed, and valued when they arrive, no matter where they are on a spiritual journey. The familiar Sunday greeting captures that intention: “It's good to see you. It is good to be seen.”
That welcome is joined to a Presbyterian framework. Scripture, prayer, sermon, and Communion shape worship, while the staff, elders, session, and Greater Atlanta Presbytery place the congregation within Presbyterian Church (USA). Over the decades, the church has remembered charter members, pastors and associates, elders and deacons, choir leaders and members, Presbyterian Men and Women, teachers, mission teams, children who grew up in the congregation, and many people who worked quietly. Its gratitude is expressed in worship, education, music, service, and continued engagement with the community.
At 791 Forrest Avenue on Highway 92
Fayette Presbyterian Church is located at 791 Forrest Ave (Hwy 92), Fayetteville, GA 30214. Its mailing address is PO Box 142836, Fayetteville, GA 30214. The church office is open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The office can be reached at 770-461-7147 or church@fayettepcusa.org.
Sunday worship is livestreamed through the church's YouTube channel, and its sermon archive organizes messages by biblical or seasonal theme and by speaker. Giving is available through online giving.
Those practical details support a consistent Sunday rhythm of learning, worship, varied music, family participation, and conversation over coffee in the narthex. Fayette Presbyterian's story reaches back to twenty people gathered around a mobile chapel and forward through a merged church family, shared facilities, recovery ministries, food and clothing support, local partnerships, and mission work. The church remains centered on receiving people, seeing one another, and serving God and the people of Fayetteville and beyond.