Churches of Christ nationwide supported the beginning of Stoney Creek Church of Christ
Published 8:16 am Friday, March 15, 2019
By GREG MILLER
STAR Correspondent
The Stoney Creek Church of Christ was begun on the first Sunday in November 1992, according to Mr. Wesley Simons, the church’s minister.
“We started in a house on Earl Williams Road with 36 people,” Simons said. “At times, we had as many as 80 in that house. Well, obviously, we couldn’t find a place for all of them. So we started to think about, ‘We need to build a building.’ We did not build a building because we wanted to be more extravagant, but because we couldn’t get the people in the building.”
Simons continued, “So we found this piece of property at 1162 Highway 91 and we purchased it for $150,000 with no way to pay for it. We appealed to Churches of Christ throughout America to help us. In 18 months, the property was paid for. Then we decided to build a building on it, and we couldn’t really afford the building. But once we moved into the building (in March of 2000), we started to grow and we soon had to add to it because of growth, and things were going good for the Stoney Creek Church of Christ. God has richly blessed us.”
Locally, Simons credits the Elizabethton Church of Christ with helping to start the Stoney Creek Church of Christ. The Elizabethton Church of Christ, also known as the C Street Church of Christ, has been a “very instrumental” factor in the ministry of the Stoney Creek congregation. “As a matter of fact, they talked us into starting a congregation up Stoney Creek,” he said. “So with their help, their encouragement, we have grown, we have done the work that we’ve done, and we feel that they deserve the credit for encouraging us to do this work. Of course, all the glory goes to God.”
Simons recalls a meeting between himself and an elder at the Elizabethton Church of Christ, a meeting that proved to be a catalyst to the beginning of the Stoney Creek Church. The meeting took place at Kentucky Fried Chicken, across the street from the Elizabethton Church of Christ. “He asked me if I would consider establishing a congregation of God’s people up Stoney Creek, so this congregation was born, in essence, in Kentucky Fried Chicken. He said that the Elizabethton Church of Christ would help us, support us financially, and any member they had who lived on Stoney Creek, I could go and talk to them and try to encourage them to come here, and some of them did.”
The church’s live radio broadcast, “Arise to Truth,” is aired on Tuesdays and Thursdays over WZAP radio in Bristol from 2-3 p.m. “We know of over 100 people who have been converted as a result of it, five of them denominational preachers. I quit counting years ago,” Simons said.
The church, which also operates a school of preaching, then initiated a Wednesday night Bible study. “We have a TV studio here,” Simons said. “We started a Wednesday night Bible study called WNBS Live. The WNBS stands for Wednesday Night Bible Study Live. We broadcast that each Wednesday night starting at 7 o’clock until about 7:40 p.m. We have people everywhere listening to it, and we have people on the radio program who listen overseas. We broadcast these over the Internet as well. We’ve had overseas people call us, from the Philippines and other places. So it’s been a tremendous success, and we’ve been richly blessed.”
The congregation, which has an average attendance of about 100 people for Sunday’s morning worship service, has reached out to the community, Simons said. “We’ve knocked on hundreds of doors, trying to encourage people to come.”
Simons says the church stands “very strongly” on moral issues. “We are against things like abortion, same-sex marriage, and gambling,” he stated. “They’re trying to get that casino in at Bristol. We’ve done various radio programs on gambling, trying to stop that, to the best of our ability.” The church is also involved in benevolence and helping those who are needy.
The church is “very sound in faith,” Simons said. “We take the Bible only. One thing about the Church of Christ, we have no earthly headquarters. Our headquarters is in heaven. Every congregation is autonomous, meaning self-ruled.”
Simons says he does most of the preaching at the church. “Jeff Johnson preaches, Eddy Craft preaches, and our students (at the Tri-Cities School of Preaching and Christian Development) also preach from time to time,” he said. “And the congregation seems to enjoy it, no matter who is preaching.”
The primary goal of the Church of Christ, according to Simons, “is to call people back to the Church of the Bible. We do not believe in man-made churches, man-made doctrines, and man-made creeds. Our plea is ‘Let’s all go back to the Bible.’ There should only be one family of God. I was told there is 30-some-odd churches up Stoney Creek, different brands.
“There ought to just be one church. When I say one church, because of the population of Stoney Creek, there might be one up at the head, one at the foot, and one in the middle, but they all ought to believe the same thing, teach the same doctrine. God is not the author of confusion. And since He’s not the author of confusion, He’s not telling you to believe one thing and me to believe something else.
“There’s only one plan of salvation, one way to worship God, one moral code. “What’s sad today is we have religious people endorsing abortion, same-sex marriage, gambling, dancing, and social drinking, and the Bible is against all of that. We ought to love God enough to take His stance on all issues. Please come and help us do this great work!”
The congregation has three elders: Simons, Mike Blevins and Travis Blevins.
Simons graduated from Red Bank High School in Chattanooga. He attended electrical school for four years. He completed two years at Memphis School of Preaching in 1972. He graduated from Tennessee Bible College with B.A. and M.A. degrees in apologetics.
Simons’ first wife, the former Elva Cook, died in 2015. The couple had two daughters: Karen and Candy (who died in 2009 with a brain aneurism). Simons and his current wife, the former Kay Roll, have been married for more than three years.
Worship opportunities at the Stoney Creek Church of Christ include Bible study, Sunday, 10 a.m.; Sunday worship, 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.; and Bible study Wednesday, 7 p.m. For more information, call 423-474-2622, search for Stoney Creek Church of Christ on Facebook or e-mail hwsimons@embarqmail.com.