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Lead pastors Chad and Allison Mackey are originally from Georgia. They were both born in downtown Atlanta hospitals and grew up in the same city of Smyrna, just north of Atlanta metro. Allison's older brother and Chad were in the same 5th grade class at Argyle Elementary School, but it was not until the fall of 1993 that they met for the first time at the Marietta Vineyard Church. Married in October of 1995, they rented a tiny brick house on Powers Ferry Road in Marietta for the first seven and a half years of their marriage, then bought a house in the northern suburbs of Woodstock. They had an amazing, life-changing experience serving as worship leaders and youth leaders at the Marietta Vineyard for over 16 years.
Finding themselves with the ability to work from home, they left the busyness and traffic of Atlanta and heading west with the hopes of building on Chad’s inherited family land in southern Tennessee, thirty-five minutes north of Florence, Alabama. When building a house on the inherited land looked to be too costly and remote, they bought a 110-year-old farmhouse about eight miles from the family land. They spent eighteen months renovating it, and their two youngest attended school in Collinwood, Tennessee. They shopped and played in the city of Florence. They attended and served in two churches in Florence from 2009-2013. Florence captured their hearts: the people, the small-town vibe, the music scene, the UNA campus and the beautiful Tennessee River. They began asking God what his plan was, and they began to long to be back in a place of ministry within their expression (or tribe), the Vineyard.
After reconnecting with Vineyard leaders at a conference, God turned their hearts toward planting a church in Florence. They began to work it out practically, taking next steps by attending conferences, meeting with regional leaders, and serving at the Franklin Vineyard in Tennessee. In preparation, Chad invested two years to completing the Vineyard Institute Biblical Studies Certificate in 2016. Relocating to Pinehurst apartments in Florence at God's clear leading in August that same year to allow their son to finish his junior and senior years in the fine arts program at Florence High School. Over the two years at the apartment they began to host small groups and food parties while working through a difficult process of selling their TN home. The Lord provided. The day their farmhouse sold, the seller significantly lowered the asking price of a historic home downtown in which they purchased and moved in February of 2019. The Tuscaloosa Street house was built in 1925 and was made for community and house shows.
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Both are bi-vocational: Chad is employed with Lowes at the Florence location following a 21 year career with Carestream Dental based in Atlanta. Allison currently works from home full-time for an insurance broker but spends free time writing middle grade fiction novels. She celebrated Lifeway publishing her first book released in May 2020 and more recently won the SCWC (Southern Christian Writers Conference) notable book award for her genre.
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Chad and Allison are excited to be exactly where God has called them: to gather a diverse community to love Jesus, love others and continue the ministry that Jesus began and commissioned us to do.
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