Harrison Seventh-day Adventist Church History
In the late winter of 1992, following the Revelation Now Crusade held by
Ron Halvorsen at the Trade Center in downtown Chattanooga, several
Ooltewah SDA Church members began following up interests in the Harrison
area. Twenty-five people regularly attended the Friday night Daniel Bible
class that was conducted by the Ooltewah group at the New Bethel Baptist
Church. This led to a decision by Pastor Mike Pettengill and the board of the
Ooltewah SDA church, to begin holding regular services in Harrison at the New Bethel facility
in June of that year.
In the fall of 1993, students from Southern Adventist University's (SAU) Campus Ministry
organization and the School of Religion's Student Ministerial Association took Harrison as a
project for community outreach, under the direction of Dr. Ron Clouzet. These young people
visited virtually every home in Harrison with a community interest survey in a program they
called "Harrison Heartreach". The outreach was divided into two phases: Bay Blitz, which
involved 80
students making initial home visits resulting in nearly 700 people filling out
survey forms; and Bible Blitz, in which Bible studies were delivered to homes
on a regular basis. Initially, 200 people agreed to accept studies, and of
these, 100 continued over a period of months. During this program, and
during the entire academic year, about 30 SAU students attended the
Harrison church on a fairly regular basis.
Near the end of the 1994 winter semester, the newly-formed Harrison group
had moved to the Harrison Bay Vocational Training Center near the Snowhill
Elementary School, meeting there until January 24, 1998. A generous gift
enabled the Harrison group to purchase property on which to build. After
considerable searching, it was decided to purchase the current property
from Dennis & Brenda Banther. The purchase was closed February 1, 1995. After the sale
the Banthers made a generous contribution to the building fund. Praise the Lord for all
those whose generosity has made the building of this church possible and the subsequent
debt elimination.
On November 18, 1995 the Harrison group was organized by the Georgia- Cumberland Conference of Seventh Day Adventists (GCCSDA) as an official company. At the time of organization there were 25 members. As of January 24, 2004 there are 101 members.