First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee

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First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga, Tennessee is a prominent, historic, downtown congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the first Christian congregation founded in Chattanooga. First Presbyterian Church began in 1838 by missionaries of the David Brainard Mission. It was, at first, a mission to the Cherokee Indians. After the "Trail of Tears" the missionaries began to work among the English, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh in the community and helped plant First Presbyterian Church, the first Christian church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Through the years, the congregation grew and its present location was dedicated in 1910. There have been twelve pastors of the church with such notable clergy as Thomas McCallie (whose sons founded the The McCallie School), Johnathan Bachman (former Confederate chaplain and a man who served for 50 years as pastor of the church), James Fowle, and Ben Haden. The present senior pastor, Michael A. Milton, was called in December, 2001.

First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga is the mother church to other local congregations such as Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church and Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church. In recent years the congregation has sponsored new churches in Fort Collins, Colorado and Los Angeles. The congregation also has a long history of support for foreign missions and is active today, through partnerships with other churches and agencies, in many parts of the world. The church sponsors a year round camp and conference center, Camp Vesper Point. First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga's Sunday morning live radio broadcast is the oldest continuing religious broadcast in America. Through the multi media outreach called Faith for living, the church produces broadcasts of the pastor's Sunday sermons and distributes them to the public through radio, television, internet, and pod casting on iTunes.

The church continues to focus on a commitment to Bible preaching, missions, and Christian education. The stated vision of the church is to be a "ministry of God's grace, with lives transformed through the Gospel of Jesus Christ." The stated mission is to "gather, grow and send forth strong disciples of Jesus Christ."