Living at Uplands is like eating watermelon.  Outdoors is the preferable venue.  A little mess is expected.  Spitting on the grass is overlooked.  And it’s something you look forward to.
    

     If you get the impression that this is not a formal, coat and tie kind of community, you’d be right.  If you like wearing ties, however, feel free to do so.  Acceptance of each other’s differences, charming quirks, and passions about life define this community.

         But you get to define your own retirement … on 500 acres of small lakes and ponds, hiking trails, park benches, and a tennis court set in one of Tennessee’s smallest towns.  But there’s a public elementary school where you can change lives in a mentor program.  A museum where you can pass on the history of self-reliance and spunkiness in the people who lived in the mist shrouded hills and hollers.  There’s a local diner, a market, and some pretty good pizza.  There’s a thrift store, a rural health clinic, and a grassroots aid organization that need volunteers.  You’ll see people on foot, on bikes, and motor scooters.  There’s even a one-woman, horse and buggy, smile ministry.  All this is within an easy drive of symphonies, theatre, shopping, restaurants, and book stores.

     The major factor in supporting such a lifestyle is that Uplands’ members create community in the truest sense of the word, serving one another and promoting a feeling of family. The professional services of Uplands are greatly enhanced by the extended family network.

     That sense of family, that passion for being a neighbor stems from the life-long habit of living lives of faith.  In many ways the soul of Uplands resides in the Pleasant Hill Community Church - United Church of Christ.  Many denominations - Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Unitarian, Quaker, Catholic, and others - are represented among the members and church life is central to social and spiritual life at Uplands. Many other denominations within 15 miles of Uplands also welcome participation

     While Uplands has a long-standing and warm relationship with the United Church of Christ through common Congregational roots, we are an ecumenical community and invite and embrace people of all faiths and creeds, and even those who profess no creed at all.