Rev. Dr. Rocky Ramsey celebrates 40 years at Corryton Church
Dr. Rocky Ramsey will complete his fortieth year as pastor of Corryton Church this week. Ramsey began his ministry on Halloween night 1984. Corryton has grown from a local church into an areawide congregation with people attending from multiple counties.
During Ramsey’s tenure, the church has purchased an additional 47 acres of land and completed over $7 million dollars in new buildings and improvements on its 50+ acre campus. In 2013 the church acquired and now operates Wafloy Mountain Village, a 75-acre Christian camp and retreat center located outside of Gatlinburg that is used by other churches from Michigan to Florida. Since acquiring Wafloy, the church has completed over $2 million in improvements. When building its current Worship Center/Family Life Center, Corryton also paid to bring sewer to the Corryton community. The church is about to break ground on a $3.5 million Student Building with the goal of having it paid in full in three years.
“The new Student Building will be 13,500 square feet,” Ramsey told The Focus. “It has a large meeting area, 14 classrooms, and three indoor pickleball courts.”
In addition to serving the community through its Upward basketball, cheering, and soccer programs for hundreds of kids, Corryton built a park on its campus for those who live in the area to enjoy. For several years the church has provided food each month to a local ministry and for residents of an inner-city housing project. Corryton Church has also given away more than $1 million in gifts, food, and other goods over the last twenty-two years by hosting Christmas parties for those in need in East Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. This year, Corryton Church is repairing and furnishing a home in Newport that was lost in this year’s flood.
Dr. Ramsey has a passion for missionaries. Rocky helped lead the last five of those retreats. Corryton Church is consistently in the top 200 (out of 47,000 Southern Baptist churches) in giving to the International Mission Board and to the North American Mission Board each year.
Ramsey is a native of Knoxville, having grown up in the Inskip community, and attended high school at Central. Ramsey and his wife Betsy have been married for 44 years. “We have two daughters. Sarah is married to Ben Witt and has a son and daughter. Emily is married to Matt Windham and has two sons.”
Grant Rodgers, Pastor Etc., adds
We will celebrate Rocky’s 40th year on Sunday, November 3rd at 10:15 am. I am asking the entire church to write a personal letter to Rocky and Betsy to express gratitude and what the Ramsey’s have meant to them through the years. The church will also provide a much needed and well-earned sabbatical.
I have known Rocky for over 40 years. I first met Rocky and Betsy two weeks after they arrived at Corryton Baptist Church to be the new pastor. At the time, I was a student at Carson Newman College needing to find a church while I completing my degrees. Rocky has always been a full of life 20 something-year-old thinking pastor who was much different than anything that I was used to growing up here in the Knoxville area. A person full of life and full of vision for what would happen and come to fruition over time. 40 years ago he said “Someday we’re gonna have a family life center and a family life ministry that can reach people through sports.” I had never heard of such a thing , but it sure peaked my interest! I have consistently found Rocky to be a person of impeccable character, completely grounded in what the Bible says, not what opinion that he may hold or what sells in the church world of today. Rocky communicates the truth out of the written word of God in a way that reaches all ages. Rocky has always stated that our church is going to be for people who are bored, burned, or both. A place where you can come in the door broken, without answers, accepted and loved right where you’re at and be led to a holy God who loves you more than words can express. This is the person that I’ve come to know over the past 40 years, unwavering in the mission, tirelessly pursuing what is right, not perfect, but striving to be so with God’s help. What an honor it is to have served with such a friend as he. Also to be part of a ministry that seeks His glory, not the winks of society.
