ABOUT US

Everyone should have a community where they belong!

Our Story
Our Values

“Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to
which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for
it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
JEREMIAH 29:7

All Souls Church is a Christ-centered worshipping community seeking the peace of Knoxville. We exist to worship and glorify God, welcome both disciples of Jesus and spiritual seekers, and form God’s people to share the good news of Jesus in our city.

We envision a city where people accept the Lordship of Jesus and are committed to following the way of Jesus; growing in joy and the fruit of the Spirit; and transforming Knoxville through reconciliation, justice, and peace.

The Hebrew word for welfare is shalom, which holds within it the ideas of peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare, and tranquility. Isaiah described the place with shalom as having joy, health, economic opportunity, flourishing children, spiritual vitality, reconciliation, unity, and safety (Isaiah 65:17-25). Jesus talked of shalom many times, calling it the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. We long to see shalom come to Knoxville, the place where we live, work, and play.

OUR STORY

Imagine a place where you can go to find solace when the noise of the world is overwhelming. Picture a community that celebrates with you through milestones big and small and mourns with you through suffering and loss. Think about what it would be like to be part of a downtown church family committed to growing in the way of Jesus and seeking the peace of the city.

THIS is US.
THIS is WHO WE ARE.
WE are ALL SOULS CHURCH.

All Souls Church is an eclectic and diverse group. We are contemplatives, charismatics, and social-justice seekers. Some of us are walking confidently ahead in our faith and some of us are wrestling with doubt. Among us are those who are…wandering, following, questioning, mourning, seeking, growing, existing, rejoicing, lamenting, journeying.

ALL are WELCOME.
WHAT BRINGS US TOGETHER is OUR
COMMITMENT to JESUS CHRIST.

From our beginning in 2004, we gathered for worship in rented spaces. Through an incredible act of generosity and obedience, an anonymous donor gifted All Souls Church the funds to purchase the beautiful property at the corner of Fifth and Central in 2020. Through a global pandemic, worshiping online and then outdoors (even in the snow!), the All Souls family raised the funds to renovate and move to our new home in the fall of 2021.

The Fifth and Central neighborhood is eclectic and diverse, just like All Souls Church. We are thrilled to be part of this developing downtown community and offer the ministry of presence to our neighbors. We seek to be good neighbors who love God and love people well.

WE BELIEVE

As a church, we affirm the Nicene and Apostles Creeds, both ancient summaries of the gospel story with which all Christians in all times have agreed. We understand that these creeds are an early codification of many Scriptures that define what is foundational for Christian faith. The creed does not take the place of Scripture interpretation. Rather, it offers us a baseline for staying together. All Souls wants to be a church where Christians who disagree about important questions of biblical interpretation can live together in loving unity. We strive towards this vision by affirming the creeds as the requirement for Christian faith, while respecting, challenging, and learning from our brothers and sisters who interpret the Bible differently on non-creedal issues. We call this doctrine CONSENSUAL ORTHODOXY, a consensus on the minimum requirements for salvation. For issues outside the creed, issues not involving salvation, consensual orthodoxy holds in tension the ideas that while Scripture is the authority for our lives individually and as a community, humility in Christ requires us to accept with grace those whose interpretations of Scripture may differ. We seek mutual practice of reason, tradition, and experience to the study and application of Scripture.

Our Values

STUDY

We affirm our desire to be a school for Christ, a learning community, where, through the study of the church’s teachings, we fall in love with God and with one another and therefore with our neighbor as well. We affirm that God’s Word is fresh and alive and speaking dynamically today. We affirm the intrinsic authority and trustworthiness of the Bible, given by God as the ultimate rule for Christian faith and conduct. We affirm the contribution of the historic church to biblical interpretation, the positive fruit of contemporary biblical scholarship, and the insights provided from the worldwide church. We affirm the role of scripture, reason, and tradition in biblical interpretation, with scripture being the supreme authority by which the church should judge itself, its thinking, and its traditions. We affirm the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.

Listen to a message on Study by clicking here.

We affirm that the God of Israel is righteous and just and is in the process even now of putting the world to rights. We affirm justice as a matter of healing, reconciliation, and wholeness. We affirm that Christ is reconciling all things to himself through the cross. We affirm the proclamation of the gospel as the means by which sinners hear and respond to the good news of God’s reconciliation in Christ and respond in faith, therefore becoming members of God’s covenant family. We affirm the critical importance of listening to our city, paying attention to her wounds and aspirations. We affirm the works of justice that emerge from this patient listening: hospitality towards the stranger, care for the earth, service with the poor, and working for the transformation of the structures of our city so that our city might better reflect God’s shalom.

Listen to a message on Justice by clicking here.

We affirm our dependence upon the God revealed to us in the scriptures and affirm that we are powerless to live fully the life we were created to live without His guidance and empowering Spirit. We affirm that we, as individuals and as a congregation, are in a covenant relationship with a God who speaks. We affirm that God gives all the gifts of the Spirit to His people today. We affirm the practices of individual and congregational discernment. We affirm healing prayer for the sick and receiving and testing prophetic words. We affirm the ancient practice of the daily office, praying morning and evening for our city.

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We affirm that all beauty reflects the beauty of our creator God. We affirm the role of the artist both in the world and in the church. We affirm the role of the arts as a means of encountering God. We affirm that through art, it is possible to experience “revelations the like of which cannot be achieved by rational thought” (Solzhenitsyn). We affirm that beauty within the built environment recognizes an interdependent relationship with the natural environment. We affirm the efforts of all who seek the beauty of the built and natural environment, because in doing so they render the city of man more like the City of God.

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We affirm that work is a primary way we glorify God on earth. We affirm that work was given to human beings before the fall and is therefore, part of God’s plan for humanity. Work is our daily activity. It is our talent and purpose in action. We affirm the role of the body in discerning vocation. We affirm the importance of public discipleship: equipping our members to live out their calling in the workplace and in the city.

Listen to a message on Work by clicking here.