Good food, rousing music and

fine fellowship welcomed the Rev. Charles Atkins, 54, to his new church

home Saturday as families of Flat Rock A.M.E. Church in Fayetteville gathered

for an afternoon picnic.

Atkins succeeds the Rev. Andrew J. Young, who served as pastor for five

years.

Standing before his new congregation, Atkins said, "I feel like family;

we are family, one in the body of Christ... Thank you showing all this

wonderful love."

His wife, Annie, added, "Expect us to do a lot of exciting things

together."

Atkins is a native of Atlanta and is employed by the Atlanta City Police

Department as a detective in the Family Violence Unit. He accepted his

call to the ministry in 1988 at Trinity African Methodist Church in Atlanta.

He was first ordained as a deacon in June 1993 and became an itinerant

elder in May 1995. Atkins was then transferred to the East Macon-Milledgeville

District-Macon Conference where he served an itinerate elder. He went

on to become assistant pastor at St. John AME Church, pastor at Bethel

AME Church, and pastor of Texas AME Church all in Eatonton. GA. Atkins

was transferred back to the Atlanta North Georgia Conference in May of

this year and was soon appointed Flat Rock's pastor. He is the son

of Samuel Dean and the late Fannie Dean of Roswell.

Flat Rock A.M.E. has approximately 150 members reflecting a huge jump

in growth since its 1995 membership of just 35 members. It is recognized

as the oldest African American Church in Fayette County and has given

birth to other black churches in the area including Edgefield, Little

Vine and Wilkes Grove Baptist churches.

In a history that traces back to 1854, the forefathers of Flat Rock established

a church on Spears' Plantation, naming it Rock Mountain. The church

eventually moved up to the northern sector of the county and was renamed

Scufflefield. Ebenezer United Methodist Church now stands on that site.

The current site was donated around the turn of the 20th century by the

John Wiley Adams Family. The original church included a classroom where

up to 100 students were taught by Irene Glover Curry and served as the

only school for black children in the county.

In 1952, the church was remodeled to add restrooms and a choir loft. Finally,

in 1978, the current church was completed with the cornerstone being laid

in 1990.

Flat Rock's organizations and ministries include three choirs, Sisters

Inspired to Serve and the acolytes.

The church's goal is "to continue seeking and developing new

opportunities for outreach to the community," according to the church

mission statement. "Flat Rock has a solid foundation built on the

blessings of God delivered through the foreparents of this church and

it is for this reason we stand convinced that we have been, we are and

always shall be... 'a great rock in a weary land' (Isaiah 32.2)."