There are some impressive facts about Flat Rock African Methodist Episcopal Church:

*It is the oldest black church in the county;

* It had the first school for blacks in Fayette;

* Its adjoining cemetery contains the burial site of the only Fayette countian to win the Pulitzer Prize.

First things first the church was established in 1854. It originally was named Rock Mountain and was on the Spears plantation about two miles south of where it is now. The church later moved farther north on land now occupied by the Ebenezer United Methodist Church and was named Scufflefield.

Members of Ebenezer and Scufflefield agreed to exchange land, and Scufflefield moved to its present location on Old Chapel Road, which runs off Ga. Highway 54, about five miles west of Fayetteville. It is on land originally donated by the John Wiley Adams family.

The church name was changed to Flat Rock at this time and the first school was begun. The small building just west of the sanctuary served as its school and originally was the only school for blacks in the county.

The sanctuary building was burned in 1917 but rebuilt. Flat Rock is mother to three other churches, all of which are still viable congregations: Edgefield in Fayetteville, Little Vine in Tyrone and Piney Grove (now Wilkes Grove) in Peachtree City. The only Fayette countian to win a Pulitzer Prize, Nellie Mae Rowe, is buried here.

The current pastor is the Rev. Andrew Young II, who was born and reared in Savannah. He attended Morris Brown College for nearly two years and then was graduated from Savannah State College with a bachelors in business administration. While in his junior year, he felt the call to the ministry, a natural for someone who has three uncles, four cousins and two great-uncles, all of whom have served in the field.

On his maternal side, his mother was a teacher and came from a line of teachers. He was graduated from the Turner Theological Seminary of the Interdenominational Theology Center in Atlanta, where he received his master of divinity in 1996.

Young was appointed to Flat Rock in 1995, at which time there were 30 members. He has been instrumental in adding more than 100 new members since that time.

He and his lifelong sweetheart, Tracy, were married in the church in January 1996. She is a teacher in Marietta. Knowing how lonely you can feel when away at college, Young keeps in touch with the four college students from the church by e-mail, so that they will feel "connected" to the church back home. "Whether they return to this church or not, they will still feel the love of a church connection, and after college will find one wherever they are," he said.

One of the congregation's many blessings is a member who answered the call that went out for a computer. He was someone in the business of communications and gave them 68 computers. Consequently the church has an outreach program not found in most churches giving away computers to congregations of fewer than 200 members. An application must be filled out and checked for authenticity to receive one; so far 35 computers have been given away.

Another outreach program is teaching welfare mothers about proper clothing and job interview skills.

Flat Rock's sanctuary choir sings on first and second Sundays, a new men's choir sings third Sundays and a children's choir sings fourth Sundays.