History of the Heritage Church of Christ

On Sunday, July 27, 2003 a group of about 20 Christians met at the home of Dwight and Sherry Stacey at Inn of Walking Horse Farm on Lewisburg Pike in Franklin, Tennessee. A worship service was held there at 10:30 A.M. The speaker was Doug Poling, who spoke on the subject of faith. The song leader was Dave Crouch. Jim Crabb and Dwight Stacey presided over the Lord’s Table and Dan Cundiff led the group in prayer. This was the beginning of what became the Heritage Church of Christ.

The following Sunday, August 3, 2003, Jim Taylor preached for the group. There were 26 adults and 3 children present. The group still had no formal name. Those in attendance agreed that we should now formally consider ourselves a church, or a congregation of Christians. And we agreed that a larger meeting place was needed. Dave Crouch spoke with local school officials and they agreed to let us use facilities at Moore Elementary School on Lewisburg Pike just south of Mack Hatcher Parkway.

Our first worship service at Moore was held August 10, 2003. About 60 people attended the service, held in the school gymnasium. We used some of the school’s folding chairs and later bought some of our own in order to accommodate our growing numbers. There were four Bible school classes: Doug Poling taught a class for adults. Richard Taylor and Charlie Cleaver taught the teen-agers. Donna Poling and Sherry Stacey taught the K through fourth grade class. And Tammy Crouch taught the pre-schoolers. By this time, several suggestions were made for a name of the new congregation. Members voted to use the name Heritage Church of Christ.

LaGard Smith was our first regular Sunday morning speaker. After Smith returned to England, Steve Flatt preached for us on a regular basis. Our first staff preacher was Paul Forshey. Kent Cleaver is our song leader.

Our first baptism was Cayla Cleaver, who was immersed into Christ in August of 2003. Randy Cook was baptized in June of 2004.

Our weekly church bulletin, Family News, made its debut on October 11, 2003. Amy Cross Nance assumed the responsibility for editing and printing it.

After we started meeting at Moore, our assembly began a growth spurt. The congregation now averages about 230 in attendance for Sunday morning worship.

In the spring of 2008, the city of Franklin agreed to our request for a zoning change in order to allow us to construct our own church building. It will be located on a parcel near the Dallas Downs subdivision and across the street from Moore school. Plans are to break ground in mid-September of 2008 with the goal of having the building completed by the fall of 2009. 

The new Heritage Church of Christ building was completed in February 2011.  The first services were held there on February 20, 2011.