Sinking Creek Baptist Church & Communitty
Sinking Creek Baptist Church is the oldest church in Tennessee. It was organized about 1772 in Washington County (now Carter County) and is the oldest church in Tennessee still in existence at its original location.
About December 20, 1772, John and James Chastain, Baptist preachers from Virginia, came to the Watauga Settlement to visit their sister, who was the wife of James Edens, Sr.
On December 25, 1772, in a tenant’s house on the property of Charles Robertson, near the location of the church, the Chastain brothers began a great revival. This may have been the first assembly that met to worship God in what is now the state of Tennessee.
The historic Sinking Creek Baptist Church building was built in 1783 and remained in use until 1924. The congregation meets in its “modern” building next door, but the historic building is maintained as a historic site.
The site is located in Carter County.on TN Highway 91 (Old US321) between Elizabethton and Johnson City.
Click here to read a discussion of the Sinking Creek settlement, complete with family histories and a map.