A Hill West of Lawrenceville Since 1823
On the second Sunday of August, 1823, thirteen people gathered on a hill west of the newly chartered town of Lawrenceville and pledged themselves "to walk in the commandments of the Lord." Gwinnett County itself had been formed only four years before; the surrounding woods were still the frontier of a young United States, and many of the county's few thousand residents clustered around the federal outpost at Hog Mountain. Two centuries later, the same gathering still meets on that hill, in the original building, under the same name. Fairview Presbyterian Church calls itself "The Heart of Gwinnett since 1823," and it remains the oldest congregation in the Greater Atlanta Presbytery.
The church's physical roots are older than most of its neighbors. Its charter members came together on land that had belonged to the Creek Nation a few years earlier, on plots of about 250 acres carved from former tribal holdings and distributed through Georgia land lotteries in the 1820s. The first settlers were farmers, judges, postmasters, and teachers; their descendants and many more besides have continued to walk up the same path for ten generations. From that small frontier outpost, members and pastors of Fairview went on to help found Presbyterian churches all across Gwinnett County - among them Norcross Presbyterian, Lawrenceville Presbyterian, Buford Presbyterian, and others - making the congregation the seed from which a great deal of the region's Presbyterian life grew. Today, with the suburbs wrapped around the original hilltop and a Target and Home Depot sharing the same Duluth Highway address, the church still keeps the address given on its website: 857 Duluth Highway, Lawrenceville, Georgia.
The Building and Its Bones
The sanctuary at Fairview is the same structure those thirteen founders dedicated in 1823. It has been remodeled many times, but the basic frame remains: hand-hewn sills 14 by 13, cross beams of 3 by 10 and 3 by 12, and interior columns each formed from a single tree, hand turned, supporting hand-formed beams and the roof above. The original church was a plain affair - no steeple, interior walls and ceiling of unpainted boards, and lighting by sun or kerosene. A first major renovation came in 1908-1909 under the leadership of Pastor Fritz Rauschenberg, and over the decades that followed, theatre seats replaced the backless benches, a cupola and two vestibules were added to the entrance, and beaded paneling covered the bare boards. Women of the church measured, cut, and upholstered each individual theatre seat by hand because none of them were standard size.
Electricity did not reach the building until September of 1946, when the Rural Electrification Agency extended service near the property and the church installed nine sanctuary fixtures - the same fixtures still in place today. Eight of those original lights are memorial gifts from Fairview families; the ninth was dedicated to "all the boys in service in World War II, especially those from Fairview." A tower was added to the west side of the building in the early 1950s, and a steeple followed. In 1980 the church received aluminum siding to replace the thirsty wooden exterior that generations of volunteers had been repainting, and the next year the building was rewired and central heat and air installed. The most recent sanctuary renovation came in August 2006 at the 183rd Homecoming Anniversary, when the theatre seats were finally replaced by upholstered pews, heart pine floors were refinished, and the entire interior was repainted and re-carpeted. Even then the bones were the bones of 1823.
To the side of the sanctuary stands the Education Building, dedicated in August 1964 and reopened after renovation in April 1965, and behind the church sits the Fellowship Hall, with its kitchen and basement storage, completed in 1992. A rose garden and the Anna Craig Courtyard were developed with a gift from the great-grandson of James Russell, who built the original Fairview sanctuary; his mausoleum sits in the garden he endowed. The long-handled handicapped ramp added to the church's side in 1986 still welcomes wheelchair users today.
The Stained Glass and the Bats
For its time, the sanctuary's stained glass windows were unusual in this part of Georgia. Each pane was hung on a central pivot so it could swing open in the summer. Members remember Sunday evenings when those open windows let in the breeze along with the bugs, the dust, and the occasional bat. Today those same windows sit at the heart of the regular weekly service. For first-time visitors, the church has a simple message: come as you are. You'll see suits, jeans, dresses, and shorts. Sit anywhere you like - you will not be "taking someone's pew." Coffee time starts at 10:30 a.m., and the sanctuary fills with conversation before worship at 11:00.
Sunday Mornings at Eleven
Worship gathers at 11:00 a.m. each Sunday in the sanctuary, with the service also livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel. The Choir leads the congregation weekly, and a Handbell Choir plays on occasional Sundays throughout the year. All services are open to all; the bulletin is posted online in advance, and weekly announcements, prayer concerns, and a link to each week's livestream go out by email to anyone who subscribes through the church's newsletter sign-up.
El Camino en Español
Each Sunday at 1:30 p.m., Fairview hosts El Camino, a Spanish-language congregation. The two services share a building, a parking lot, and a long Presbyterian heritage but minister in the two languages that regularly gather on the hill. The Run for Shelter page, fellowship events, and many of the church's other programs flow from both congregations together.
Children on the Hill
Children of any age are welcome to stay in the sanctuary, where busy bags and craft supplies help wiggles and whispers find their place during the service. A staffed nursery is available for infants through preschool, and ushers are glad to point families in the right direction. The church's mission statement - developed in the early 1990s with help from Columbia Theological Seminary and adopted by the congregation in August 1994 - puts spiritual growth, community outreach, and meaningful fellowship at the heart of what it does, and the youngest members are treated as full members of that mission.
The Music Ministry
Lisa Grimsley, the congregation's long-serving choir director, leads the Choir through weekly rehearsals on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. and through every Sunday's worship along with special services across the church calendar. A Handbell Choir, funded by the Worship Committee in 1997, rehearses on the second and fourth Sundays of each month at 2:00 p.m. and adds its voice to services throughout the year. Members interested in joining either ensemble are encouraged to reach out to Lisa. The hymnals in the pews are the Celebration Hymnal, adopted in 2002 to broaden the church's mix of musical styles while honoring its Presbyterian roots.
Stated Supply Pastor Melissa Tidwell
The Rev. Melissa Tidwell became Fairview's Stated Supply Pastor in August, after serving as guest preacher during Lent earlier the same year. A second-career minister, she came to the Presbyterian ministry after fifteen years in religious publishing, including five years as editor of Alive Now magazine. She is the author of "Embodied Light: Advent Reflections on Incarnation" and lives in Pine Lake, where she is working on a garden and a book about memory as a spiritual gift. Before arriving at Fairview she served Presbyterian churches in Tennessee, Ohio, and California. Her name joins a long succession of pastors who have served the congregation since 1823, more than seventy of them by the church's own count in its written history.
Run for Shelter: One Step at a Time
Each November the church hosts Run for Shelter, a 5K run/walk that has become its signature community outreach. Founded in 2008 by longtime member Janet Russell and held at Tribble Mill Park, the race raises funds for Home Sweet Home, the Lawrenceville Salvation Army's homeless housing program, which is respected in the region for its rapid re-housing work. The first year raised $5,000 for the Salvation Army; in the years that followed, the event has continued to bring tens of thousands of dollars and a great deal of public attention to the problem of homelessness in Gwinnett County. Janet Russell was recognized by the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta in February 2010 as the Presbyterian Citizen of the Year for her role in starting the race. Past results, registration forms, and donation links live on the church's Run for Shelter page each year, and the race has drawn runners and walkers from across the Atlanta region.
The Mission Committee and the Co-op
The Mission Committee meets after worship on the fourth Sunday of each month, and anyone interested in helping is welcome to join. Through the year the committee organizes monthly food drives for the Lawrenceville Co-op, Thanksgiving baskets for families in need, a Giving Tree filled with Blessing Bags during the holiday season, and the small Little Pantry Box stocked with food for those in need. The church partners with Family Promise to support families working through housing instability, takes special offerings for Thornwell Home and Presbyterian Homes of Georgia, and participates in the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s special offerings. The simple text on the Mission and Outreach page says it plainly: "Do you love me?" Jesus asked. "Feed my sheep." - John 21:15-17.
Scouts on the Grounds
Scout Troops 514 and 5514 make their home on the Fairview grounds as part of the church's commitment to its neighbors, and the church lists them among its proud hosts on the Our Partners page. Together with Lawrenceville Co-op and the El Camino congregation, the Scouts are some of the many groups that share the life of the hilltop.
Second Sundays and the Women's Book Club
Food and fellowship anchor the church's monthly rhythm. Second Sunday Suppers bring the congregation together after worship on the second Sunday of each month; the meals are sometimes themed ("Mothers Day - Men to Make Breakfast," "Fathers Day / Ice Cream Social with Hot Dogs"), sometimes paired with a short program or guided conversation, and always built around relationships. The Women's Book Club, typically meeting on the third Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m., reads a new book each month and gathers at a local restaurant to talk it over, led by Lynn Curry. The current newsletter lists the upcoming titles.
Homecoming
Every August the church gathers for Homecoming, a tradition that reaches back at least to the 1820s. In August of 1942, two members - D.Y. Williams and Winfred Huff - reported to Fort MacPherson directly from the August Second Sunday Homecoming celebration before shipping out in World War II. The 182nd Homecoming, in August 2003, honored longtime member Mary Ellen Williams as the church's oldest living member on the seventy-fifth anniversary of her confirmation. Today Homecoming remains the congregation's annual reunion, with a covered-dish meal after worship, an update on the year just past, and the recognition of members who have reached major anniversaries of their own. The fellowship hall and the rebuilt pavilion and playground host the gathering.
The Cemetery and the Families
Behind the sanctuary, the Fairview Church Cemetery has been in use since the mid-1800s and continues to serve members and their families today. Guests are always welcome to walk the grounds. Generations of the same families lie there together. The Williams family alone stretches across four generations of Fairview membership, from Rolla Williams - confirmed in the nineteenth century - through D.Y. Williams and his sister Mary Ellen Williams, both of whom appear repeatedly in the church's own history and memorials. Mary Ellen was recognized by the Presbytery as Fairview's Outstanding Senior Presbyterian in 1999, on her seventy-first anniversary as a member, and was named the church's oldest living member in 2003. She passed away in 2005 and is buried in the family plot next to the church she grew up in. The Anna Craig fund, established by Miss Anna Craig in 1980 when she passed away at the age of 101, still supports the cemetery's upkeep today.
Presbyterian Roots, Greater Atlanta Presbytery
Fairview is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Within that denomination, it belongs to the Greater Atlanta Presbytery, the regional body that gathers Presbyterian congregations across metro Atlanta. That connection is older than the city of Atlanta itself: Fairview hosted the annual meetings of the Hopewell Presbytery, the predecessor to the Atlanta Presbytery, in 1825 and 1831. Decades later, the congregation's pastors helped shape the wider church. Fairview's second pastor, the Reverend John S. Wilson, moved from the hilltop to Decatur and then became the founding pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. Pastors of the Atlanta Presbytery and the wider denomination have continued to walk in and out of Fairview's doors ever since.
Today on the Hill
Two hundred and three years after the founding pledge, the same hilltop still draws a congregation committed to spiritual growth, community outreach, and meaningful fellowship and service. Stated Supply Pastor Melissa Tidwell and a small but engaged group of members, leaders, and volunteers keep the doors open and the lights on. The Sunday Bulletin goes online each week, giving members and friends who cannot be there in person a way to follow along. The Run for Shelter draws runners each fall. The El Camino congregation gathers each Sunday afternoon. The Scouts meet on the grounds. The Choir rehearses on Wednesdays. The Handbell Choir rings on second and fourth Sundays. The Women's Book Club meets on third Mondays. Second Sunday Suppers fill the fellowship hall. The cemetery rests behind the sanctuary, tended and open. From a thirteen-member outpost on the edge of a wilderness to a small, faithful congregation in the middle of metro Atlanta, Fairview Presbyterian Church remains what it has been since 1823: a church on a hill, in one place, walking in the commandments of the Lord.