In 2012 Haralson County native Randall Redding had the vision to take an old Ingles grocery store in Bremen and turn it into a “music hall” with concerts featuring a wide variety of artists across the music spectrum. However, at the core of his vision was his idea for the venue to be easily transitioned every weekend to serve as the home of a local church on Sundays.
Several years before that, Randall had the chance to meet and begin building a friendship with Dave Divine, lead pastor and founder of what was then The Church at Chapelhill (now known as Chapelhill Church) in Douglasville. The church met weekly at Chapel Hill High School. Of course, Pastor Dave had a dream for Chapelhill to have its own permanent location and, when the time came, tapped Randall’s company, RKR Construction, to build its first building. “A little over twenty years ago, Pastor Dave Divine was introduced to a man named Randall Redding with RKR Construction, and they began this relationship through people they both knew in building the Chapelhill location in Douglasville,” said Andrew Bailey, the associate pastor at Chapelhill’s Bremen location. “Once that process got started, the building erected, and services were happening, the relationship continued between Dave Divine and Randall Redding,” he added.
After establishing the Douglasville location in its permanent home, Pastor Dave began to have his own vision for Chapelhill to become one church with multiple locations throughout west Georgia and metro Atlanta to expand its reach and mission “to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.” “Coming up on almost ten years ago this March, Randall approached Pastor Dave about the potential of starting a location in Bremen in Mill Town Music Hall. They had several conversations, Pastor came out and met with him, looked at it, and Randall began to share with him his thoughts and visions of what it could look like and what his plans were with concerts and bringing in artists to sing and perform, but on the weekends how it could be flipped to be a church,” Pastor Andrew stated. “His heart for multiple locations was already churning, and this just confirmed in him what God was calling him to do. So a little over almost ten years ago, that happened. Chapelhill Bremen started in March 2012, and for almost the past ten years we’ve existed and had a wonderful relationship with the Reddings, and it’s been great,” he added.
Since then, Chapelhill Bremen has leased the Mill Town Music Hall space, hosting services every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. In addition, the church leased a separate space in Mill Town Marketplace, the shopping center connected to the concert hall, for offices, children’s church, and youth services, which the church called the “Life Center.” But the church always had a dream to have its own permanent location in Bremen.
Eight years later, 2020 would bring some unexpected events that would greatly affect Mill Town Music Hall. The COVID-19 pandemic would end up halting concerts and events for many months. Even Chapelhill Church went to strictly online services for several months. Not only that, but with the untimely passing of Randall Redding the future of Mill Town became a very large question mark.
However, because of the great relationship between the Reddings and Pastor Dave Divine, the dream of a permanent location for Chapelhill Bremen became a reality. “About six months ago, Randall’s wife Tena Redding reached out to Pastor Dave with the proposition that the church not only purchase Mill Town Music Hall, but the entire shopping center property as well,” Pastor Andrew said. Following consultation with church leaders and prayer, Pastor Dave’s answer was an emphatic ‘Yes!’,” he added. Discussions continued, papers were drawn up, and in November 2021 Chapelhill Church closed on the purchase of the property.
As Mill Town Music Hall wraps up its final concert season this month, the future remains bright and faithful for its soon-to-be-former space. While changes will be made to the auditorium after the new year to make it more conducive for the church, primarily bringing aspects of the Life Center down to the auditorium where the church can exist together all in one space, no other changes to the shopping center will be made at this time. All the current tenants will remain, and the church hopes to build a great relationship with each one. Ultimately through its new permanent home Chapelhill Bremen hopes to further advance its mission to bring more people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Chapelhill Church is one church in multiple locations, including Atlanta, Bremen, Douglasville, Dunwoody, and online. For more information about the church, its mission, service times for each location, and more, visit chapelhill.cc.
