On a Sunday afternoon in June,
1957, a small number of Christians met in the auditorium of the Carroll
Lane Elementary School. They identified themselves as the church of Christ
on Carroll Lane and met at this location for about ten months. In 1958,
the structure located at the corner of Dalraida and Dankin Place was completed and the congregation began to
assemble there, becoming known as the Parkway church of Christ. In 1973
the building at 3737 Brawner Parkway was constructed and the old building
was used for classrooms. This building served the Parkway church well
until the late 1990s when it became apparent that this facility was no
longer meeting our needs. At that time the Parkway church bought a
building directly across Brawner Parkway that was formerly occupied by the
Nazarene Church. This building was remodeled and on April 1, 2001, the
Parkway church began meeting in its present facility at 4141 Brawner
Parkway.
W.E. Coffman, Sr. worked as an
evangelist with these brethren from their beginning until the later part
of 1961. Other evangelists have been Pat Farish, Elden Givens, Bob Melear,
J.M. Gilpatrick, Jay Bowman, Elmer Moore, Charles Boshart, Sakki Pretorius. David
Smitherman began working with the church in August of 1990 and continues
to the present.
Prior to 1997 six men served as
elders of this church. The first three were C.J. Folkes, Carl Miller, and
Jack Young who began their work in 1965. John Osborne, Joe Henderson and
Elmer Moore also served. For a number of years, the Parkway church
functioned without elders, but in 1997 Rob Perkins and David Smitherman
agreed to begin serving in this capacity. In June of 2000 two other men,
Gus Cargile and Bill Chambers, agreed to work with Rob and David and these
four men continue to serve as pastors.
