Sunday Service

9:00 am

Formation

10:00am

Sunday Service

11:00 am

Welcome

Our Mission

We seek to follow Jesus Christ in an open and inclusive community of faith where God’s transforming love for all creation is celebrated through worship, discipleship and service.

We believe this mission statement captures the essence of Westminster’s history as well as charts a course for the future. Since its founding as a new church development in 1965, this community of faith has been committed to the values of theological inclusion and openness, and service in the manner of Jesus Christ. Westminster continues to be a place where people can ask questions and explore together, a place where genuine intergenerational relationships are fostered, a place that values integrity in worship, music and education, and a place that seeks to live out the implications of what it means to be a gathered community of disciples of Jesus Christ in the 21st century. We welcome you to this website. We hope it provides you not only with information but also allows you a glimpse into the uniqueness of this particular community of faith.

Where Faith and Life Connect

Through music, intergenerational connections, service to others, environmental care, passion for the arts, exceptional fellowship, and a strong youth program we at Westminster seek to grow in our understanding of God, to learn from the teachings of Jesus Christ, and to be open as to what God’s Spirit would lead us to do and to be in this world.

We don’t claim to have all the answers, but we think it is important to struggle with the questions as we seek to do justice in our community and in the world, and to nurture one another in mutual support. Our vision is to be an inclusive community where faith and life connect. We invite you to join this vibrant community of faith to wherever the journey leads.

A Brief History of Westminster

On the last Wednesday in September of 1964, a group of interested residents of West Knoxville met to discuss the possibility of establishing a new Presbyterian church in the Lyons Bend area. They chose the name Westminster Presbyterian Church, and the new group began meeting on November 14, 1964 at Rocky Hill School. On Sunday, December 20, at the morning Worship Service, a special offering was received to purchase our church lot (5.5 acres at that time). With Ruling Elders, Board of Deacons, and Trustees elected, the new church was officially organized on February 7, 1965. Westminster closed its charter membership roll on Easter Sunday with 98 names, the largest such charter membership in the history of the Presbytery of East Tennessee.

By the end of May in 1965, the congregation elected the Building Planning Council. The following February the plans for the building were unveiled by the architect, Bruce McCarty. The ground-breaking ceremony was held three months later, on May 15, 1966, on the property.

On Christmas Eve of 1966, Westminster Presbyterian Church opened its doors for the first service in the newly built chapel. In the short period of only sixteen months, this church had been conceived, nurtured, and born into a reality. The original building held a sanctuary, classrooms, and offices. The congregation’s rapid growth in the 1970’s led to a need for more administrative and program staff and more space. The McKinnon Room and kitchen wing were added in 1978.

The current sanctuary, built when the congregation outgrew its worship space, was dedicated in May of 1996. The architect was again Bruce McCarty. Like the chapel, the sanctuary is rectangular in shape, with a high ceiling and high clerestory windows.

The magnificent organ in the sanctuary, Richards, Fowkes and Company’s Opus 7, was installed and voiced beginning in September of 1998 and was dedicated on May 2, 1999. In the summer of 2004, a new wing connecting the sanctuary with the original building was dedicated. It contains the Schilling Gallery (named for our Minister Emeritus, Fritz Schilling, who retired in 2004) and offices for the staff. This building phase also included a new kitchen, the front plaza and beautiful waterfall, and the columbarium with a perennial garden. The architect for the new wing was, again, Bruce McCarty.