Retired Pastors Partner to Revitalize City Church

by

Local Church

Holston Conference | July 24, 2025 

Key points:

  • Two retired pastors are trying to revitalize Macedonia United Methodist Church in East Knoxville.
  • The Rev. Jim Bailes and the Rev. Walter Cross are combining their gifts and reflecting the neighborhood’s diversity.
  • The co-pastors are working without pay yet are seeking funding for pastoral leadership and other needs to ensure the church’s strength in the future.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Two retired pastors are trying to lead a 216-year-old church back to growth and connection with the community, after Macedonia United Methodist Church experienced a long period of decline.

Serving as co-pastors, the Rev. Jim Bailes and the Rev. Walter Cross believe in the East Knoxville church so much, they are currently working without pay.

“We owe so much of our lives and souls to Macedonia,” says Bailes, age 75, who grew up in the church. “I would run through a brick wall for them, the church has done so much for us.”

“We should be burdened for reaching souls, and we should want to go out into the community for others,” said Cross, age 75.

Bailes has a long connection to the church, whereas Cross currently lives three miles from Macedonia. Together, the co-pastors hope to make a difference in a church that had dwindled to 15 in worship attendance by 2024.

“Brother Bailes and I are alike and different,” said Cross. “Some people prefer chocolate and some prefer vanilla. We offer both.”

As a youth member, Bailes met his future wife, Diane, at Macedonia. The couple was later married in the church.

Bailes also experienced his call to ministry at Macedonia at the age of 15. As a counselor at Camp Wesley Woods during his high school years, Bailes wrote in his Bible, “This is it. I am called.”

The pastor went on to serve several East Tennessee churches in Holston Conference over four decades, returning to his home church a few times to guest preach. After he retired in 2015, his district superintendent called him in 2024, just as he was experiencing some “restlessness,” Bailes said.

Reflecting Acts 16:9 (when the apostle Paul had a vision of a man asking him to, “Come over to Macedonia and help us”), the Rev. Ann Robins asked Bailes if he would go help Macedonia United Methodist Church in Knoxville.

Bailes visited the church and was concerned. While the building is in good shape, the church's future was "extremely vulnerable, sociologically and financially,” Bailes says. “The community is filled with more people than ever,” yet Macedonia had lost people and connections over the years.

Judy Clift, a member of Macedonia since 2008, remembers when the church was busier.

“We had probably 80 people every Sunday, a great choir, a great music director, vacation Bible school. We had a summer fest every year on the lawn, with hundreds of people who came,” Clift said. “Little by little, people who had children drifted away and the older people passed away.”

Bailes agreed to come on board as interim pastor in February 2024. He enlisted the Rev. Jim Goddard, a church consultant based in Pearisburg, Virginia, to develop a revitalization strategy.

“It’s important for you to see the church as it is now and not what you remember,” Goddard told Bailes. Goddard studied the demographic around the church and made a recommendation to the congregation.

“They thought if the church had an African American presence along with Jim Bailes, it would make a difference,” Cross said.

After serving churches in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia for 24 years, Cross retired in 2023 with a reputation as a powerful preacher. When Cross was asked if he would consider helping Macedonia, he said he would pray about it. He visited the church with his wife, the Rev. Angela Hardy Cross, and then did some guest preaching.

On a Monday morning this spring, Cross called Bailes and said, “I’m in.” 

On Palm Sunday 2025, Cross and Bailes kicked off a new season as co-pastors. “You put the two of us together – that was a game-changer,” Bailes said. "They love Walter and Angela. Who wouldn't?"

Both pastors participate in worship on most Sundays, inviting musical guests and friends from other churches to help fill the pews. They meet on Mondays to discuss creative ways to worship, including acting out Bible stories. Over the last year, worship attendance has grown from about 15 to 30, including residents of two nearby homes for people recovering from addiction.

The two pastors complement each other with their gifts, says Clift. “Walter is a delightful, spiritual icon. Jim is a brilliant Bible scholar, the epitome of a caring pastor.”

A new sign is in progress, showing photos of the co-pastors. Building off his YouTube following, Cross has begun sharing five-minute, Monday morning prayers with the Macedonia community. The co-pastors want to begin a weekly in-person prayer gathering at the church this fall.

“We are just getting started,” says Bailes. “We have not made a dent, a step into the neighborhood.”

"It's been an adventure, a great joy so far," Cross says. "We haven't made that impact into the community yet, but evangelism and discipleship take time."

Training is planned to possibly begin a “dinner church” this fall. Church leaders also hope to host a week of Camp in the Community next summer, along with building their media presence. 

In the meantime, Goddard is seeking funding for pastoral salaries and other needs, Cross said.

“If the money doesn't come, I'm not going anywhere. But as United Methodist pastors, we don’t want to cripple the church,” Cross explained. “If you take us out of the picture, we don’t want the expectation that others will just show up after us. My goal is that whatever time the good Lord gives me here, to leave the church stronger."

Holston Conference includes United Methodist churches in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and North Georgia, with main offices in Alcoa, Tennessee. Sign up for a free email subscription to The Call.

Annette Spence is editor of The Call, the Holston Conference source of news and stories, from which this story is republished.