Up-date on building our new church

Just a few pictures of our new church.Rain has been slowing us down.Roof trusses will be delivered today,and crane will set them Saturday.Pray for us,In our denomination we usally build the church within our congreation.Our general contractor attends our church and he received 1.00 for his time,and my job as pastor is to watch over the project and coordinate both volunteer and paid contractors.We have also purchased used pews from a funeral home for a good price.Our church is a 40x53 ft building and will hold a 100 people,were hoping we can complete this project for 90,000 dollars

jimmy

I quite often wonder about the new churches being built. Did you out grow your old one, was it destroyed or are you starting a new church. I see so many being built, 2 in our community, and so many are dwindling to nothing. I wonder, if the dwindling churches had more support, if newer bigger ones would be needed.

WV2cyl

A little of all,There is no Free Will Baptist churches in our area,After the Civil war they died off,becaues of slavery issues.If you were a slave owner you werent allowed to be a member of our denomination.The first Free Will Baptist church in WV was the Curtice Free Will church in Harpers Ferry which was Stoer College.We were part of the Northern Baptist.Through Missions are plans were to build 3 churches in the eastern panhandle.Our mother church has become contempoary,our second church is across 2 countys and our church is very traditional,which most of our older people enjoy.Sad to say but our church started as a split becaues two hard heads couldnt see eye to eye,and our pastor finally left anyway.I volunteered to pastor to save a beauitful peice of property the congreation bought and minister to a few of the older people who had a vision of building the 3rd church.The property had a doubble wide mobile on it that we used for a church but has a lot to be desired.God has blessed the church and Myself also.I agree totally with your veiws but as long as theres people theres going to be differences,all I can do is lead the people and if theres no vission the people will perish

jimmy


2

We just built a new Catholic Church, the old one had been undersized since the 1940s was a stone stucture built in the 1898 and should have been replaced decades ago. An addition wasn't possible as the limestone walls were part of the support structure and church overall had seen its better days. With lots of people moving into the town if you wanted a place to sit with your family you had to get there 20 minutes early. You couldn't have a decent sized funeral or wedding in it (it had actually been years since a "traditional wedding" had been held there.

But you should have heard some of the people &%^%*# and *^&# when it was put to a vote to build the new church. I literally heard one exclaim "If it weren't for all these youg families coming in we wouldn't need a new church". I guess she had no idea how something survives from one generation to the next. As in most communities it seemed like the people that had grown up there just took what they had for granted and did little to help keep it up. All the people on the parish board and other volunteer positions were filled by people that had moved to the town in the last 10-15 years - most of the old time residents were to lazy to get off their arses and do the work then complained when it wasn't done like it had been done the last 50 years.

Caused lots of hard feelings but it does every time something new comes along. The church size when from seating for 200 to seating for 450 with room to expand. When one of the most vocal oppenents of the building died I pointed out to his son (who actually was for the project) how full the church was and how half those people wouldn't be there if his dad had his way.

Dan,Ive got a older gentleman who has been in church from day one,He was the first to vote to build a new church.The very first day when we dug the footers and I ordered 230 tons of gravel he started complaining thats not the way it was done 50 years ago.I know he wants to be helpfull but he is a pain in my side,he also cant stand seeing the balance in the check book going down.Hes going to take his money with him when he dies and hes the only one thats going to make it to heaven

jimmy

According to some Heaven is an awfully lonely place.

We're seeing some "recycling" of churches in our area- As old congregations die out, they end up giving the property to a new and "up and coming" church, usually of a similar denomination that the oldtimers agree with.

Success or failure of new churches seems to rely heavily on the charisma of the minister. People these days don't seem to have deeply held thelogical beliefs, but they know what makes them feel good, and the minister is the face of the church that they see every week. I have trouble with the new wave of rock bands playing the music being projected on the wall instead of sung out of hymnals, no choir, and everyone in blue jeans- but then, I'm just one of the old fossils, I guess.

Our church was built in 1908.It is non denominational, everyone is welcome. Being the secretary to the Board of Trustees, I have to say that we have all gotten along very well.

The problem we have is a dying membership. There are no children other than one ten year old. Most of us are over 60 and about 50% of them are 70 or older.
I think in 10 years it will be very difficult to keep the church going.

Interesting to see the progress.