Atlas Church of Christ
A Brief History of the Atlas Church of Christ
The Atlas Church of Christ turned 75 years old in the spring of 2007. It began during the fall of 1931 and the spring of 1932. A group of area residents began meeting in the Comer School house in the Atlas community in Lauderdale County Alabama.
Weekly services were held in the school building, but gospel meetings were held in a brush arbor across the road from the school. Mrs. Ethel Gooch was baptized in the meeting held in the brush arbor in 1932. She made a list at the time of thirteen others baptized in the same meeting.
A second brush arbor was built about a mile from the first one. It was used until sometime in 1940.
In 1938, the Comer School was moved to Killen and the Atlas congregation continued to meet under the brush arbor as long as the weather permitted. During the winter some went to the North Carolina Church of Christ and others went to the Lone Cedar Church of Christ until spring.
Will McGee donated land and pillars for a church building in 1940. Four men in the congregation donated timber for lumber to build the building. John Hill furnished a sawmill and sawed the lumber. A 20 ft. by 40 ft. building was erected. It was weather boarded and a tin heater was used to heat it. It was bricked in the early sixties and offices added to the front of the building. The original building is still part of the church complex today and serves as a fellowship hall. A preacher’s home was constructed at the same time.
A new 700-seat auditorium was constructed in 1980. The original building was renovated and incorporated into the expansion as a fellowship hall. Classrooms were added to the south side of the original building. The new auditorium was built on the north side of the original building with a wide hallway connecting the two. A major renovation of the auditorium was done in 1998-1999.
