Our History

In 1999 a few men went to Orlando, Florida to meet with the leadership of Metro Life Church (a church plant of Sovereign Grace Ministries) envisioned and hopeful to someday have a Sovereign Grace church planted in the greater Athens area. After a number of meetings and much prayer, God made it clear His desire was to have a new church planted in Athens and he was sending Paul Cooke to lead that church.

Paul and Darby moved to the Athens area in June of 2001 after 10 months of being at the Sovereign Grace Pastors College in Gaithersburg, Maryland. They came to lead this handful of families in realizing God's desire for just such a church. After 3 months of preliminary meetings CrossWay Fellowship Church held its first public meeting the Sunday after 9/11, 2001 in Oconee Youth Playhouse. In February of 2003, after outgrowing the Playhouse, we moved across the street into to a new facility, Oconee County Primary School.

Sensing the Lord's clear leading to move closer to downtown Athens, Crossway Fellowship moved once more to its present location, Clarke Middle School in Athens, GA in February of 2006. Strategically located to reach students from the University of Georgia, upper and middle class residents, as well as the economically-challenged, we have experienced the handiwork of God since moving. We long for more lives to be transformed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Athens and beyond.