Tavner Smith's Venue Church Sold to Seventh Day Adventists, Who Were Renting Building

Venue Church in Chattanooga used to be among the fastest-growing churches in the nation, topping 1500 people spread across four services and two locations. Then the pastor and senior leader, Tavner Smith, cheated on his wife, divorced her, and subsequently had an illicit affair with his worship leader/ personal assistant.

This resulted in a mass exodus of staff and congregants. Attendance is down an estimated 95%, and the church filed for bankruptcy, hoping to hold on to its church building. With the news of their implosion, several churches sought to buy the property and building, including RockPoint Church, but in the end, Tavner Smith found a savior of sorts: a Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) church.

Crosswalk Church is a 5-location multi-site SDA church* led by lead pastor Tim Gillespie. Growing and expanding, they’ve been renting out Venue Church for months for their Saturday services and now are no longer renters, but owners, having purchased the property. The church raised 2 million dollars, cash, in 15 days, from 225 donors.

They made the new building announcement on their Facebook page.

According to sources, because all Seventh-Day Adventists have church services on Saturdays, the Venue Church will be able to continue renting from Crosswalk for an undisclosed amount of time.

Editor’s Note. We believe here at Protestia that SDA is a cult and their prophetess Ellen G. White was as crazy as a rat in a coffee can. That being said, depending on their view of her writings’ authority, there is a slight possibility that genuine believers may exist within the SDA. For this reason, we would encourage anyone part of this denomination to flee from it and join a biblical church.

They made the new building announcement on their Facebook page.