Jackson Free Press

Wesley Chapel Pastor Dr. Steve Blakemore is planning a festival that he hopes will bring together a North Jackson neighborhood.

On Oct. 29, Wesley Chapel, located on the corner of Northside Drive and Manhattan Road, will host a fall festival, which is free and open to the public. The event includes food, music and games for kids.

"The purpose is to do something for the neighborhood that we touch--the Broadmeadow neighborhood and the Broadmoor area," Blakemore said. "We hope to bring different types of people from the community and the neighborhoods together for a time of positive, wholesome being together."

Welsey Chapel is located on the campus of Wesley Biblical Seminary and is an inter-denominational congregation, which means that it does not subscribe to one denomination but is rooted in the Methodist church. Blakemore moved to Jackson in 2000 from Virginia to become a professor at Wesley Biblical Seminary, where he teaches philosophy or religion, theology and Christian apologetics.

Blakemore said that his congregation is committed to connecting with the community.

"We want to be a church in the City of Jackson that reaches out in the name of Jesus to help heal the racial divide that exists sometimes," he said. "We want to be a church that expresses in contemporary language the truth of the Christian faith so that people can come to place their faith in Jesus and follow him as disciples."

Blakemore is a native of Appalachia, VA. He attended Asbury University in Kentucky, where he received his undergraduate degree in religious studies. He completed his graduate work at Asbury Theological Seminary and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. He earned his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Tennessee.

The 55-year-old lives in Jackson with his wife, Caroyln. He has four sons ages 18 to 25.

Wesley Chapel's fall festival is Saturday, Oct. 29 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.