​OUR STORY

 

In September of 2009, seven missionaries and their four children moved from Connecticut/NYC to plant the Mission Chattanooga.  They knew no one in Chattanooga, but they felt called here through a dream that God gave to Angie Sorensen.  In February of 2010, the Mission launched its first worship service, Evensong.  Over time, the Mission began to grow.  Now with hundreds of worshipers each week, the Mission Chattanooga parish is comprised of two chapels: The City Center Chapel and the Highland Chapel.

 

Stanwich Heritage - Evensong (the first worshiping community of the Mission) was originally born as a community within Stanwich Church, in Greenwich, CT, a historic New England church that is over 280 years old.  In August of 2009, a team of seven adults, including the co-founder of Evensong, Chris Sorensen, felt led to move to Chattanooga to plant The Mission. Stanwich is a church that has long been dedicated to finding a balance between truth and grace. The Mission Chattanooga has been tremendously influenced by Stanwich Church and sees itself as its daughter.

 

The Brainerd Mission - In 1817, a Mission was formed in the Chattanooga area to reach out to the Cherokee people and African-American slave population in the region. This community, named the Brainerd Mission, soon became a vibrant and unusually healthy multi-ethnic congregation. Whites and Cherokee worshiped side by side with black slaves. The Brainerd Mission, founded by a group of Congregationalists from New England, was avidly opposed to the enslavement of blacks. In some cases these missionaries were even jailed for possessing anti-slavery literature and teaching black children to read and write. As the views of these missionaries became more broadly known, many slaves were drawn to the Brainerd Mission. These slaves would often travel up to 17 miles (a long distance in those days) to worship at the Brainerd Mission alongside the Cherokee and whites. The Cherokee and slaves also were educated side by side within the Brainerd Mission. At its peak, they even utilized both Cherokee and African-American slaves as educators and translators.

 

Although not without difficulties, controversies and imperfections, the work of the Brainerd Mission continued to prosper until the devastating Cherokee removal of 1838. The Missionaries opposed this policy, and many of the Missionaries journeyed with their Cherokee brethren on the trail of tears. Among those who went was Rev. Daniel Butrick, whose journal provides one of the most informative accounts of the horrific event. [see Ties That Bind, by Tiya Miles].

 

In the spirit of those Missionaries from long ago, the goal of The Mission Chattanooga is to gather all types of people to live in a vibrant, socially engaged community of faith that is richly rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

​PARISH LEADERSHIP

 

PASTORS 
(In alphabetical order)

 

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Fr. Paul Downer

In addition to preaching and caring for parishioners, Paul oversees helping newcomers and established parishioners plug into opportunities for community, growth, service and mission. Paul earned a B.A. in Bible and a B.S. in Business from Bryan College and a Masters of Theological Studies from Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. In addition to his work as a pastor, Paul enjoys fitness, hanging out with friends around a good bonfire and tackling home renovation projects that somehow always take twice as long as he expects!  Paul is married to Rachel, and they have one daughter, Lilla.

Contact Fr. Paul or use our Contact page

 

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Fr. Ben Ferguson

​Ben Ferguson is the Lead Pastor of the Highland Chapel. Ben was born in Longview TX, but has lived all over the world including Hong Kong, Canada and Switzerland. He has B.A. from Moody Bible Institute in Biblical Languages and received his Masters of Divinity from Regent College- Vancouver in 2009. He is married to Mary Ferguson and together they have two beautiful daughters named Amelie and Lucy.

Contact Fr. Ben or use our Contact page

 

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Fr. William Glass

William is the pastor of our Evensong service. After marrying his wife Ana in 2010, he attended Duke Divinity School where he earned an M.Div. in 2014. His wife Ana and he then moved to Dallas, TX, where he completed the coursework and exams for his PhD in Systematic Theology at Southern Methodist University. He was ordained in 2012 and has served in Anglican churches in Florida, North Carolina, and Texas. He enjoys dark beer, cold weather, mandolin music, and the NBA.

Contact Fr. William or use our Contact page

 

ASSOCIATE PASTORS

(In alphabetical order)

 

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Rev. Matt Busby

In addition to serving at the Mission Chattanooga at Evensong on Sunday evenings, Matt is the Pastor of Cultural Engagement for the Mission Chattanooga and Director of The Camp House.  His passions revolve around Missional Theology, exploring the threshold between faith & culture, and building coalitions in both the civic and ecumenical realms.  Matt enjoys fly fishing, reading, and hiking with his wife Amber and two young children, Theo and Annabelle.

Contact Rev. Matt or use our Contact page

 

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Chris & Erin Collins

Chris and Erin Collins are the Middle School Youth Leaders at The Mission Chattanooga. They have been involved with youth ministry in different ways since they were teenagers themselves.  Erin has been a youth intern and Chris has been a YoungLife leader. They have both assisted with youth ministries for years. Chris has his bachelor’s in Exercise Physiology and is a Doctor of Chiropractic and Erin has her bachelor’s in Entrepreneurship. Together, they own and operate Novel Chiropractic on the Northshore. They are expecting their first child in December of 2018.

Contact Chris and Erin or use our Contact page

 

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Rev. Mary Romero Ferguson

In addition to preaching and providing pastoral care, Mary is the Mission’s Pastor of Liturgy and the Arts. She has been in some form of ministry, whether in worship, teaching or preaching, for the last 10 years and especially enjoys those aspects of her job that include hospitality and community; liturgy and the church calendar; beauty and the arts. She received her B.A. in English and Christianity from Houston Baptist University and her M.C.S. in Christianity and the Arts from Regent College in Vancouver, BC where she also received The Luci Shaw Prize in Creative Writing for her poetry thesis, Philoxenia. Mary has also been published in quite a few journals. She currently enjoys living out her three vocations of writing, ministering, and mothering her daughters, Amelie Joy and Lucy.

Contact Rev. Mary or use our Contact page

 

 

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Courtney Johnson

Courtney Johnson is the Children's Pastor at the City Center Chapel of the Mission Chattanooga. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Finance at Lee University before continuing on to seminary at the Mission School of Ministry, from which she graduated in the summer of 2018. Courtney has worked in various youth and children’s ministries for 9 years.  Her primary focus is assisting parents with spiritual formation in their households and ensuring that every child at the Mission grows in their understanding and experience of the love of God. She is passionate about making liturgy and worship come alive for children in a powerful way.

Contact Courtney or use our Contact page

 

 

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Emily Kuhn

Emily Kuhn is the Director of Children's Ministry at the Highland Chapel. She received a B.A in Music Ministry with a minor in Biblical Studies from Bryan College in 2013. During her time in college Emily was a part of the worship leadership team for the school where she gained years of experience in worship leading.  Post college, Emily spent years working as a preschool teacher.  These experiences lead Emily to the field of children's ministry where her first loves—children, music, creativity, and sharing the love of Jesus—all come together beautifully.

Contact Emily or use our Contact page

 

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Nate Miller

Nathan Miller is the husband of Melissa and the father of two beautiful kids, Ivy and Marcus. Nathan wears a few hats at the Mission Chattanooga: he is a Pastoral Apprentice at the Morningsong service, the Director of High School Youth, and helps manage The Camp House during the week. He is also in the process of completing his Masters of Arts in Ministry with the Mission School of Ministry.

Contact Nate or use our Contact page

 

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Rev. Katrina Payne

Joining staff at the Mission Chattanooga in 2013, Katrina has served at the Mission in many roles including the Director of City Ministries, Assistant Director of University Ministries, Service Coordinator, Mission Administrator and Pastoral Apprentice. Currently she serves at Evensong on Sunday evenings as a Deacon and works part time at Habitat for Humanity. Katrina is passionate about mercy ministries and serving those with visible needs. Her favorite part of her day is her morning walk with her husband Johnny and son Ezra.

Contact Rev. Katrina or use our Contact page

 

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Rita Rubino

Rita is the General Manager and Pastor of the Camp House. She has a passion for seeing others discover the love of God and helping them learn what it means to step into a life of faith. Rita has 30 years of experience in the restaurant hospitality business and was previously director of catering and events for James Beard award winner Debra Ponzek's Aux Delices Foods. Rita holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Pace University in NYC. As a former dancer with Dance Theater of Harlem and the Atlantic Ballet, she is a lover of the arts. Her husband, Dan is the business manager of the Mission Chattanooga. They live in Chattanooga with their son who attends the Savannah College of Art and Design and his grandmother GG. Rita enjoys practicing and teaching yoga and playing cello.

Contact Rita or use our Contact page

 

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Chaplain Angie Sorensen

Angie is the Parish Chaplain of the Mission Chattanooga. A graduate of Montreat College (B.A. in English Communications) with post-graduate training as a graduate of the Chattanooga Association for Clinical Pastoral Care (CACPC), Angie has been ministering in both para-church and parish ministries for over 15 years. Angie helps care for the congregation, in good times and bad, and she walks with women in discovering what it looks like to be a disciple of Christ.

Contact Chaplain Angie or use our Contact page

 

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Rev. Ann Weaver

Serving in various capacities at the Mission, Ann is a pastor at the 9am Sunday Lauds service and has helped to organize Mission Communities, women’s events, and other discipleship opportunities. She has a Masters in Theology from the University of Wales.  Her interests include community building, mentoring, helping people connect with Scripture in meaningful ways, and researching/writing about subjects like the roots of our faith, historic spiritual outpourings, and discerning religious experiences. Ann loves the mountains, all things Welsh, walking, quilting, reading, and exploring places off the beaten path. She and her husband, Bill, have two sons and seven grandchildren.

Contact Rev. Ann or use our Contact page

 

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Fr. Chris Woodhull

Chris serves as a pastor of the Mission Chattanooga, the lead pastor of the Icon Chapel and the co-director of the Office of Truth, Lament and Repair. Chris also serves as the Director of Creative Development for The Soul Care Project while also directing the effort and ethos of Build Me A World. His background includes eight years on the Knoxville city council and more than twenty years running an inner city ministry outreach to young gang affiliated men. He completed the Graduate Program in Spiritual Disciplines at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Bethesda, Maryland and holds a masters degree from Richmont Graduate University.

 

WORSHIP DIRECTORS

 

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Satoya Foster

Satoya is the Worship Director and Pastoral Intern for the Evensong Service. As a licensed minister, Satoya leads our congregation in worship, leads the children and adult choirs, and helps care for the congregation. She is currently attending the Mission School of Ministry to obtain a Masters Degree in Ministry with a concentration in Anglican Studies.

Contact Satoya or use our Contact page

 

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Daniel Nelson

Daniel serves as the Worship Director of the 9am, 10:30 and 11am worship services of the Mission Chattanooga. Daniel leads worship, pastors and fosters community within the worship teams of these congregations.  Daniel has an associates degree in Biblical Studies from Nicolet Bible Institute, and a technical certificate in ministry and worship music from Hillsong International Leadership College.

Contact Daniel or use our Contact page

 

FOUNDER OF THE MISSION CHATTANOOGA

 

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Abbot Chris Sorensen

The Mission Chattanooga is a parish of the Mission Abbey which is overseen by Abbot Chris Sorensen. Though Chris is no longer on the staff of the Mission Chattanooga, he still comes to the Mission parish to preach regularly.  Before launching the Mission Chattanooga, Chris served as the Senior Associate Pastor of Stanwich Church, in Greenwich, CT, for seven years. While in seminary (M.Div – Alliance Theological Seminary, Nyack, NY), Chris served as the Young Life Area Director in Darien, CT. Under his leadership, Darien Young Life became the largest Young Life ministry in New England, with more than 60% of the public high school participating. In addition to his church ministry work, Chris has guest lectured on topics such as homiletics, North American missions, and worship as an adjunct/guest professor at ATS and conferences across the United States. Chris is a worship singer/songwriter, as well as the lead-singer/guitarist for national recording artist Evensong Rising. Chris has been married to his wife Angie for over 20 years, and they have two sons.

Link to The Mission Abbey

 

 

​ANGLICANISM

 

What are Anglicans?  Good question.  Anglicanism is the third largest Christian tradition worldwide (After the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions), involving more than 90 million people. With roots emerging as far back as the first or second centuries in the Celtic Isles, this British expression is also one of the oldest Christian traditions. From the seventh through the fifteenth centuries, the English Church came under the authority of the Church of Rome (Roman Catholicism). In the fourteenth century, many of the most influential English clergymen began questioning some of the newer theological positions and decisions of the Roman Church. Then, in the sixteenth century, English clergymen opted to utilize a political rift between the Pope in Rome and the King of England as a means to establish independence for the Church of England. So, in 1534 the Anglican Church was formally born.

 

Over these last nearly five hundred years, the Anglican tradition has spread all over the world. In Africa, the Anglican Church has flourished. In recent history, the Church in Rwanda has experienced spiritual awakening. This renewal came about as the Church in Rwanda boldly sought to become an instrument of reconciliation in the wake of the devastating genocide of 1994. As these believers began experiencing God in tremendous new ways, they couldn’t help but notice of the crisis of faith taking place in our Western world. In the year 2000, the Archbishop of Rwanda took unprecedented measures by establishing the Anglican Mission. As a direct result of that commission from Rwanda, the Mission is one of hundreds of communities of faith that were established in the Americas in the 2000’s. Eventually the AMiA helped establish the Anglican Church in North America, and today the Mission Chattanooga is a member of the ACNA.

 

What does this all mean? It means that as we come together each week in worship, we find that we are a part of a very old story. It is the story of a faith established long ago in a city called Jerusalem, in the ancient Near East. That faith was then handed to the Celtic people in the British Isles some 1800-1900 years ago. After hundreds of years developing autonomously, that faith was placed under the authority and cultivation of Rome. Nearly 500 years ago, after the English Church was made independent once again, that faith was exported on ships all over the world. It eventually landed in Africa and began to grow. Finally, in an historic turn, that faith was sent back to the West from Africa in the year 2000.

 

​WHAT IS AN ABBEY?

 

Modeled in ancient Celtic history but quite different from later religious, monastic communities, abbeys are centers of craft and trade, worship and outreach, counsel and guidance, teaching and training, hospitality and rest, love and healing. Abbeys are havens of refuge and peace, not only for family and friends, but also for strangers and outcasts.

 

Abbeys are led and guided by an Abbot, a spiritual father who seeks to protect and cultivate the welfare of the community. Father Chris Sorensen was commissioned as the Abbot of the Mission Abbey by the Most Reverend Doctor Foley Beach, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of North America.

 

The Mission Abbey is comprised of three parishes: Mission Chattanooga, Mission Red Bank, and Mission Cleveland.