Neverfail

C O M M U N I T Y     C H U R C H

serving portions of  Cumberland, Putnam, and White counties on the Cumberland Plateau of eastern middle Tennessee

Our Community

our community

Our primary ministry field is a very rural area stretched out 18 miles along US Highway 70S between the Bon Air and Claysville communities (in White, Cumberland and the isolated Glade Creek Community of Putnam counties) which are between Sparta and Crossville, Tennessee in what is called the Upper Cumberlands portion of the Cumberland Plateau. Stretching 8-10 miles or so both on the north and south sides of the highway it covers over 300 square miles, parts of 2 school districts and includes about 6,000 residents on rural home sites or clustered in more than 15 small communities.

A large portion of the children in both school districts  qualify for free or reduced price meals, indicating a significant struggle with poverty.

A survey from several years ago indicated at least 33% of our neighbors have not achieved a high school diploma or GED. Over 40% of our neighbors are not in the labor force.

Only a small proportion of families have heads of household with year round full-time employment.

That same survey revealed that although 25% of the families in the Pleasant Hill community have income less that 150% of the poverty line, only 4.1% receive public assistance.

Many in our community, both younger and older, struggle with disabilities.

About 97% of the people living in our neighborhoods are native to this community.

There are at least 16 small church congregations serving these neighborhoods, some independent and others related to one of 8 different denominational affiliations.

The native mountain people are proud, self-reliant, and have been family and community oriented.  This has diminished over the years as people started to look down on their heritage, find work off the land, leave the area, or stay in spite of being unable to compete with the more highly skilled people moving into the area.