Siam Baptist Church is a Baptist congregation at 2414 Siam Road in Elizabethton, Tennessee, known for its promise “Welcome Home Where You Belong” and for bringing church families together through worship, music, discipleship and service. Its stated mission is to glorify God by proclaiming Jesus Christ through multiplication, worship, community, service and missions.
Welcome Home on Siam Road
Senior Pastor Brian Hollaway has led Siam since October 2023. He grew up on a farm in the hills of East Tennessee, where the outdoors shaped much of his life. His earlier work included mechanical design, outdoor television and competition as a professional archer. In 1997, he surrendered to ministry, returned to college and earned a B.S. in Ministry and Leadership from Johnson University. He later served congregations in Knoxville and Johnson City before coming to Siam, where he emphasizes dynamic preaching, prayerful leadership and reaching the local community for Christ.
Brian and Kim Hollaway said the slogan “Welcome Home Where You Belong” described exactly how they felt when they first stepped onto Siam’s campus. That sense of belonging is joined by a staff team that includes Kim Hollaway as interim ministry assistant, Karen McKay as Sunday School director, Brandon and Lauren McCloud as youth and children’s ministries leaders, Mitzi Hobbs as worship leader and director of children’s choir, Savannah Jenkins as nursery director, and Jerry Stout as chairman of the deacons.
Sunday Gatherings and Wednesday Prayer
Siam’s in-person gatherings take place at 2414 Siam Road. The weekly rhythm includes Sunday school, two worship gatherings, choir and children’s ministries, midweek prayer and Bible study:
- Sunday at 9:45 a.m. Sunday School.
- Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Sunday Morning Worship, with Kid’s Worship for children ages 4 through 6th grade.
- Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Sunday Evening Worship. Children’s Choir follows from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. for children beginning in pre-K.
- Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Adult Choir.
- Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Prayer & Praise, Team Kids for children in grades 4 through 6, and Bible Study online.
The youth ministry also meets on Wednesday evenings, and youth Bible study is held weekly on Sunday mornings. Church gatherings and ministries are conducted in English. Worship services are livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook through the church’s YouTube channel. The office is open Monday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Its phone number is (423) 542-8789 and its email address is siambaptistchurch8789@outlook.com.
What to Expect at a Siam Gathering
Visitors are always welcome. Siam’s church family includes teachers, farmers, retirees, business owners, stay-at-home mothers, students and others. The church describes this diversity as part of a community brought together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Dress is comfortably informal or formal: some people wear suits and ties or dresses, while others wear jeans and a T-shirt. The guiding welcome is to “come as you are.”
The worship gatherings focus on hearing from God and responding to him through reading, preaching, singing, praying and the truth of Scripture. Siam’s vision also names the celebration of baptism and communion within worship. Music has an active role through the adult choir, children’s choir and worship leadership.
Children’s Choir, Team Kids and Worship Together
Kid’s Worship is part of the 11:00 a.m. Sunday gathering for children ages 4 through 6th grade, where they have fun worshiping and learning about the Word. Team Kids meets Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. for children in grades 4 through 6 and combines Bible study with service projects. Vacation Bible School is offered every June. Savannah Jenkins directs the nursery.
The Children’s Choir gathers from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Sundays for children beginning in pre-K. It develops musical skills through singing, creative movement and drama. Each year the choir produces two musicals, one at Christmas and another in the spring, and the stories teach biblical principles, often through Bible characters. Productions have included “Go, Go, Jonah,” “Good Kings Come in Small Packages,” “The Tale of Three Trees,” “Christmas in Egypt,” “The Christmas Express” and “The 50th Annual Polk County Picnic.”
The choir also performs at special events and occasionally provides special music for Sunday morning worship. Every child’s birthday is marked in a monthly special session. Following the musicals, children have received special outings to local trampoline parks, swimming pools and roller-skating facilities, as well as the Polar Express train ride in North Carolina and Pigeon Forge Snow. Children’s Choir activities are provided free of charge.
Youth, Women and Adult Choir
The youth ministry holds a weekly Bible study on Sunday mornings and a meeting each Wednesday evening. Once a month, youth volunteers assemble grocery bags of food at Hale Community Ministry for people who may need help providing food for their families.
Women’s ministry is called S.H.I.N.E., an acronym for Serve God, Help others, Influence our neighborhood, Nurture and mentor, and Encourage one another. Some members knit and crochet for shut-ins and widows, while others visit people who are sick, nursing home residents and the homebound. The ministry also partners with a Women’s Crisis Center in the area.
The Adult Choir helps lead Sunday morning worship, performs special musical numbers and presents Christmas and Easter Cantatas. Singers and instrumentalists are welcome to use their gifts in the music ministry. Mitzi Hobbs leads worship and directs the Children’s Choir.
Ministry for the Whole Community
Siam teaches that ministry is not primarily the work of church leadership but the work of the entire Christian community, following Ephesians 4:11-16. Formal ministry takes shape through organized opportunities to serve one another, neighbors and the wider world. Organic ministry happens when an individual or group serves outside an organized program. The examples are concrete: taking a meal to a family with a newborn or one that has lost a loved one, visiting someone in the hospital, mowing the grass of an elderly member, or serving with a local ministry partner.
Formal and organic ministry are both presented as expressions of Christian service. Formal opportunities organize ways for people to serve, while everyday acts of hospitality and care extend the church’s witness beyond its gatherings. Siam’s value of service joins mercy, hospitality and generosity with partnerships at local, national and international levels.
Multiplication, Worship, Community, Service and Missions
Siam’s vision is to “Glorify God by proclaiming Jesus Christ through multiplication, worship, community, service and missions.” It connects the mission of God with the mission of the church: God’s plans are to display his intrinsic worth and glory, and the church seeks to make disciples through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The five values give that mission a working shape:
- Multiplication: Intentional ministry produces followers through teaching, community and accountability, helping believers mature and fulfill God’s purpose in their lives.
- Worship: Life is described as constant worship, and gatherings remember the gospel through preaching, teaching, singing, praying and the ordinances of baptism and communion.
- Community: The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation, so the church values relationships that strengthen faith and service.
- Service: Siam seeks to serve its community and the wider world through acts of mercy, hospitality and generosity.
- Missions: Missional living in daily interactions with neighbors and coworkers, mission partnerships and short-term mission trips are ways to make disciples.
Partnerships That Reach from Elizabethton
Siam’s commitment to Acts 1:8 extends beyond its own membership. It names the Watauga Baptist Association, ETSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry, Hale Community Ministry and TLC Community Center as partners. Other relationships include the Tennessee Baptist Convention, North American Mission Board, International Mission Board and Operation Christmas Child. The church also supports and prays for missionary families serving in a variety of capacities.
These relationships connect different parts of the church’s life. Hale Community Ministry gives youth a monthly place to serve, while Operation Christmas Child is one of the international mission relationships named by Siam. The church also connects Acts 1:8 with missional living in daily interactions, ongoing partnerships and short-term mission trips.
The Baptist Faith and Message
Siam describes its doctrinal identity as “The Baptist Faith and Message.” The Bible is presented as divinely inspired revelation from God, perfectly true and trustworthy, with Christ as the focus of divine revelation. God is one living and true God, eternal and triune as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sovereign over creation. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, the Savior and mediator, while the Holy Spirit convicts, regenerates, comforts and empowers believers and the church.
Human beings are made in God’s image and possess full dignity and worth. Because humanity sinned, salvation is God’s gracious work rather than a human achievement. Siam defines regeneration as the Holy Spirit’s work of changing the heart in response to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Justification is full acquittal through God’s righteousness, sanctification is growth in moral and spiritual maturity through the Holy Spirit, and glorification is the final state of the redeemed. The church states that there is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
The church is described as an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers associated in covenant, operating under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. Pastors and deacons are named as its scriptural officers; both men and women are affirmed as gifted for service, while the office of pastor is limited to men qualified by Scripture. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the Lord’s Supper uses bread and the fruit of the vine to memorialize the Redeemer’s death and anticipate his return. The first day of the week is affirmed as the Lord’s Day for worship and spiritual devotion.
Evangelism and missions are described as the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ. The same message also gives attention to education, stewardship, cooperation, religious liberty and the Christian social order. Rooted in the regeneration of the individual, this social order calls believers to oppose racism, greed, selfishness and vice, to speak against sexual immorality, and to care for the orphaned, needy, abused, aged, helpless and sick. It also affirms the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, defines marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman, and regards the family as foundational to society.
A Church Family in Elizabethton
At the center of Siam Baptist Church’s life is a Baptist confidence in the authority of Scripture, the lordship of Jesus Christ and the necessity of personal faith. Around that center are Sunday and Wednesday gatherings for Scripture, song, prayer and fellowship; graded ministries for children and youth; service projects, choir work and mission partnerships; and a welcome expressed as “Welcome Home Where You Belong.” From its base at 2414 Siam Road in Elizabethton, Siam seeks to glorify God by proclaiming Jesus Christ through multiplication, worship, community, service and missions.