Mission and Vision «

Christ Community Church exists as a gospel-centered community to glorify God by pursuing the spiritual, social, and cultural good of Johnson City and the world.

Christ Community Church in Johnson City, Tennessee is a PCA church plant which began in February of 2006 with about 30 people and a vision to create a gospel-centered church in downtown Johnson City, near the campus of East Tennessee State University (ETSU). The Lord continues to gather families and individuals around the vision of establishing a gospel-centered community to glorify God by pursuing the spiritual, social, and cultural good of Johnson City and the world.

Johnson City is the largest city in the Tri-Cities region of Northeast Tennessee and has a population of about 58,000 people while continuing to grow at a very rapid rate. Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, and the surrounding areas make up the Tri-Cities region of Northeast Tennessee, which has a combined population of 480,000. East Tennessee State University, with an enrollment of over 12,000 students, calls Johnson City home. The university features the James H. Quillen College of Medicine, which is nationally known as a top-quality medical school for primary care physicians. Not surprisingly, given the medical college's importance in the area, Johnson City is also known for its large medical community. In 2005, a new College of Pharmacy was approved at ETSU by the State of Tennessee and began offering classes in January 2007 (from wikipedia.org).

As a gospel-centered community, we want to be known as a people who believe that Jesus has already done for us what we could never have done for ourselves: he took the death that we deserved so that we could have the life that he deserved. So, far from being a people who have it all together, we are a community of sinners saved by grace.

We believe that God is redeeming the world and a people to live in an intimate relationship with him. Therefore, we expect that God will continue to gather to himself more and more men, women, and children, converting their hearts and their lifestyles, transferring them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

Therefore, we expect to be involved in establishing new congregations in and around the Tri Cities. Jesus described his kingdom as one that would continue to grow and spread throughout the world (Matthew 13:31 33), and so we are excited to participate in the work that he is doing by the power of his Spirit.

We also want our presence in Johnson City, Tennessee, to bring joy to the city (Acts 8:8). The Bible teaches us very plainly, “When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices” (Proverbs 11:10), so we want to be the kind of community that makes Johnson City rejoice.

We want to be a community for Johnson City by working for community healing and justice. God instructed his people to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you” (Jeremiah 29:7). He also told them “Is this not the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke” (Isaiah 58:6-7), and, “You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in” (Isaiah 58:12b). With this in mind, we have established a relationship with one of the more needy housing projects in our city, and we look forward to working for community healing and justice by supporting and/or creating other ministries of mercy and justice in our city. This is one of the reasons why we have focused on downtown Johnson City and the neighborhoods on the south side of the city, where the work of restoration and revitalization is most needed.

We also want to be a community for Johnson City by our involvement in cultural engagement and renewal. God created a world of breathtaking beauty, and human beings as his image bearers have also been given the capacity to create. We believe that the arts should be redeemed for the glory of God, and we love the unique culture of East Tennessee, so we look for ways to support and reach out to local artists and musicians.

Here are sermons which explain our philosophy of ministry:

Keeping First Things First - 2 Corinthians 4:5-7 - Rev. John Gullett

That He May Be Glorified - Isaiah 61:1-3 - Rev. John Gullett

Living By Faith - Galatians 2:15-21 - Rev. John Gullett

A Community for Johnson City - Colossians 1:15-20 - Rev. John Gullett

Leadership Team

Our pastor, Rev. John Gullett, is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary, where he also served as Director of Admissions for three years. John and his wife, Beverly, have been married for fifteen years and have two young children, Sam and Maggie. John and Beverly met in the School of Music at Appalachian State University. Before being called as the organizing pastor for Christ Community Church, John served as the pastor of Princeton Presbyterian Church in Johnson City. John’s passion is to walk alongside those who want to grow spiritually, seeking to apply the teaching of the Bible to the whole of life.

Ruling Elder Joe Street was born and raised in Johnson City and is a machinist at Kennemetal Inc. Joe comments, "I am excited about Christ Community Church because as a new church we realize how helpless we are in ourselves and how very dependent we are on God. We seek to build strong relationships with one another that will weather the storms of time and mirror our relationship with our heavenly father. I am also excited because our dependence upon God is like an infant to their parents. We have not learned how to be self-sufficient. We desire to see Christ do what we cannot do, trusting him to pour out his blessing on those who seek and serve him."