Services that began with a Sunday School and a tent revival became the foundation for Morningside Baptist Church, established in 1937. This church attracted members not only from its base in the Twickenham neighborhood but also families who lived at the nearby Josiah Tattnall Homes. The church’s early success lay in its family-based programming. Tapping into the numbers of the “baby boom” generation, Morningside offered children and young people a variety of activities that included Boy Scouts, Bible study, and girls’ and boys’ organizations. For most of the 1950s, over 400 children enrolled every summer at Morningside’s Vacation Bible School. Their parents also attended Bible study classes; in addition, nine different missionary circles were available to women. Morningside men fielded teams in basketball and softball church leagues, collecting an impressive number of trophies over the years. An outward sign of the congregation’s growth by 1957 was the construction of a new church building on East Gwinnett Street, seating 1,200 people.
Building on past achievements, Morningside expanded its outreach with specialized youth ministries that included a Sunday School class for deaf children, a kindergarten, and a reading assistance program. Perhaps its most ambitious effort was to establish a Vietnamese mission in response to the growing number of Vietnamese immigrants settling in eastern Savannah.
In 2005, an aging congregation that grew smaller every year decided to partner with an African American congregation then worshipping at the Savannah Baptist Center. The new interracial congregation created in this partnership called itself Christ’s Community Church, a congregation following in the Morningside tradition of outreach.
Morningside Baptist Church
Photograph by Geoff L. Johnson.
Courtesy of the City of Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs.
Six years after opening the new sanctuary in 1957 the congregation of 1,700 had already outgrown its seating capacity.
Sweetheart Banquet, Morningside Baptist Church
Courtesy of Kay Adams.
Using a cowboy theme for its Sweetheart Banquet in 1957, the church invited couples to wear their best western clothes, dine “off the church wagon” and enjoy a serenade by “roving cowboys.”
Morningside youth and baseball
Courtesy of Kay Adams.
Morningside teenagers enjoy a Sunday afternoon baseball game at Forsyth Park in 1954.
Vietnamese Baptist Mission
Courtesy of Fannie Mae Langdale and Morningside Baptist Church.
Morningside’s Vietnamese Baptist Mission and its pastor, Rev. Luong Kim Nguyen, played a critical role in ministering to Vietnamese refugees newly arrived in Savannah in the 1980s and 1990s. Rev. Nguyen, himself a refugee, helped immigrants meet their immediate needs of shelter, jobs, and English classes. By 2001, the mission had grown sufficiently to become an independent congregation.
