Tabernacle Baptist Church was formally organized as the Beulah Baptist Church on Friday, August 21, 1885, in the Union Baptist Church. The organizational leader for the church was the Reverend Charles Thomas Walker. At the request of Reverend Walker, the name of the church was changed, by unanimous vote, to Tabernacle Baptist Church. This was done a special meeting on Sunday, August 23, 1885. The enrolled membership of the new church was 310.The young pastor and his congregation made immediate plans to secure a permanent place of worship. Construction of a church edifice began on September 1, 1885. The building waslocated on Ellis Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets.The church building was formally dedicated on December 13,1885.
 

Four years later Tabernacle Baptist Church grew rapidly and became a leader in local, national, and international religious and community circles. By 1889, the membership of the church was 2000.

On August 25, 1886 the first National Baptist Convention of Negro Baptists met atSecond Baptist Church in St. Louis, Missouri. Walker was one of only three delegates from Georgia who attended that convention. He became one of the leaders of the National Baptist Convention; in 1889, the convention was held in
Indianapolis.

Walker preached an arousing sermon, and Rev. Dr. William J. Simmons, D.D., President of the National Baptist Convention and President of theState University of Kentucky, told him, "You have won your D.D., and I’ll see that you get it." In the summer of 1890 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity wasconferred on Reverend Charles T. Walker. Later Dr. Walker served as Treasurer of the National Baptist Convention for three years.