About us
In 1992, a group of faithful Christians began to look toward the horizon and dream of a church that would represent their core beliefs and values. It was from that dream that a different kind of baptist church, Horizon Baptist Fellowship, was born and has continued to minister to Chattooga County ever since.
Our story
New Baptist congregations are born out of various causes, concerns, and circumstances. On July 12, 1992, Horizon was begun by a group that met with a concern for traditional Baptist beliefs and values, which they saw eroding around them in Baptist life. In that same year, other Baptists around the country were expressing the same concerns and formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF). On August 8, 1992, they asked Dr. Cecil Sherman, then coordinator of the National Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, to meet with them and give advice regarding the direction they might take to organize and affiliate.
Meeting at various places around Chattooga County over the next couple of years, Horizon began to take shape. Groundbreaking for the church facility began on April 14, 1996 and the facility was dedicated on October 13, 1996 thanks to help from like minded churches around the state. Throughout our history, we have had five pastors; Dr. Steven Sheeley 1992-1993, Dr. Roger MacDonald 1993-2010, Dr. Jerry Mahan 2010-2013, Rev. John Harris from 2015-2023, and Dr. Dalen Jackson from 2024 until the present.
beliefs
We affirm the Bible as the inspired Word of God and the basis for our beliefs. We further affirm values such as the priesthood of all believers, church-state separation, fair play, free cooperation rather than enforced conformity, and the complete authority of the Bible, as distinct from the authority of someone's beliefs about the Bible. We come together as a body of baptized believers in Jesus Christ, personally committed to sharing the good news of salvation.
Our purpose
We exist to:
Worship Christ
- by being a worshiping fellowship, experiencing an awareness of God and responding in obedience to Christ's leadership.
Form Together
- by helping people experience a growing knowledge of God, the Bible, contemporary Christianity and Christian missions. by being a dynamic spiritual body empowered by the Holy Spirit to share Christ with as many people as possible in our church, community and throughout the world.
Create Beloved Community
- by being a church that ministers unselfishly to persons in the community and the world in Jesus' name
- by experiencing an increasingly meaningful fellowship with God and fellow believers.
- to be a church whose purpose is to be Christ-like in our daily living by emphasizing total commitment of life, personality and possessions to the Lordship of Christ.
Values we share with Cooperative Baptists
Bible Freedom is the historic Baptist affirmation that the Bible, under the Lordship of Christ, must be central in the life of the individual and church and that Christians, with the best and most scholarly tools of inquiry, are both free and obligated to study and obey the Scripture.
Soul Freedom is the historic affirmation of the inalienable right and responsibility of every person to deal with God without the imposition of creed, the interference of clergy, or the intervention of civil government.
Church Freedom is the historic Baptist affirmation that local churches are free, under the Lordship of Christ, to determine their membership and leadership, to order their worship and work, to ordain whom they perceive as gifted for ministry, male or female, and to participate in the larger body of Christ, of whose unity and mission Baptists are proudly a part.
Religious Freedom is the historic Baptist affirmation of freedom OF religion, freedom FOR religion, and freedom FROM religion insisting that Caesar is not Christ and Christ is not Caesar.
leadership
Our Pastor
Dalen Jackson is a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He came to Horizon in December, 2024, after a 30+ year career as a theological educator, including service at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Georgia and at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky in Lexington/Georgetown, Kentucky. He is a graduate of Samford University (B.A.) and the [old] Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div., Ph.D.). His wife, Shari, is from Anniston, Alabama, and they have two grown children and two grandsons. Dalen is especially interested in listening to diverse voices in interpreting scripture and understanding what it means to be followers of Christ.
Music Director
Jim Curry is a native of Rome, Georgia. He came to Horizon in May 2016, after a 40+ year career in education as a teacher and administrator, including serving as principal at both the elementary and middle school levels and as dean of the Price School of Education at Reinhardt University. He is a graduate of Berry College (B.A., M.Ed.), West Georgia College (Ed. S.) and Argosy University (Ed.D.) Jim has three sons, nine grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. In addition to his music ministry, Jim has participated extensively in local theater for the past 30 years, including serving on the Rome Little Theatre Board of Directors and as a member of the cast in more than 40 productions.