The Village Church has its humble beginning in College Park, Georgia, where it was established in 1986 under the sponsorship of the Second Baptist Church of College Park. At that time, the name of the church was Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church and it was located at 2300 Sheriff Road, College Park, Georgia. The church flourished well for several years until it experienced financial and leadership difficulties. Once settled, the congregation began to drift apart, until finally, in 1999, the doors closed.
Prior to this time, Pastor Temba Mafico had served as Associate Pastor to the Reverend Yvonne White, M.Div, (Morehouse/ITC). Together, they worked diligently with God’s help, to once again stabilize the congregation, but again, their efforts proved futile. Dr. Mafico left the church and Reverend White continued alone for a while. But in December 1999, the church voted to close and Rev. White appealed to Pastor Mafico to take over the church, if he so wished. After much discussion with God, Pastor Temba Mafico agreed to inherit the church with no members, very much behind in mortgage payments, and the building in need of massive repairs. For two years the church persevered, renovated the building, caught up with mortgage payments, attracted several strong members, but that was all.
When Pastor Mafico formally assumed the leadership of Metropolitan in April of 2000, he changed the name slightly to New Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church. Again, after several months of facing the same and new challenges, one being the hidden location with lack of visibility to the public, Pastor Mafico was encouraged by the Baptist Association to sell the property and move to a more visible and viable location. Growth was slow and the future looked bleak. Again, with much prayer and deliberation, New Metropolitan moved to the home of Pastor and Minister Mafico in Decatur, Georgia. This time, with new hope and renewed vision, the name of the church again changed to Greater Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Slowly new members joined through Bible Study and finally in July 2003 the church moved from 3386 Steele Way, the Pastor’s residence, to 4555 Flat Shoals Parkway office suite. There we worshiped and the church showed great promise. However, the visibility still posed a problem. The suite was in the back at the bottom of the office building.
After much prayer and discussion with God and the members, we set out again for a better location, and the church assumed a new and more authentic name: Village Church Missionary Baptist Church. The Village of Hope was born in December 2004 when we moved to our church home at 4600 Rockbridge Road in Pine Lake, Stone Mountain, Georgia.
We continue to trust God’s leadership and direction as we persevere along the journey, in pursuit of God’s call to grow a church that is truly people oriented. It is our sincere prayer and hope that God will open doors, send us serving members and not just worshippers, people who will bless us as we bless them, people who will join us in this race, and pursue it with perseverance and determination. The Village is a serving church and is determined to make a difference in the community and the world at large.