HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP

Church to renew after fire

Nearly 1½ years after fire destroyed Bethel Life Church, the 75-member congregation of Bethel Life Worship Center will break ground on a new church building.

Groundbreaking will be at 7 p.m. Sunday across from the site of the old church on Sheakley Avenue in Hempfield Township. The new building will front South Mercer Street.

A former deacon who has worked on the building project, Les Myers, will turn over the symbolic first shovel of dirt.

Since the Feb. 11, 1999, blaze, the congregation has been worshipping at quarters in Good Shepherd Center in Greenville, in Hempfield Township fire hall during winter months and at Pentecostal Campgrounds in Delaware Township in summer months.

Changing its name somewhat, Bethel Life Worship Center was ready to buy the former IGA supermarket in Greenville and turn it into a church and Christian center. However, the store owner’s bankruptcy nixed the deal.

Work on the 70-by-54-foot fellowship hall will begin Monday and is expected to be completed in early November, said the Rev. David V. Carr, pastor. Several months after the congregation begins worship in the fellowship hall, the 250-seat sanctuary is expected to be ready.

During the next 10 years, the church plans to add administrative, educational and counseling wings to the worship center, the pastor said.

Insurance proceeds and community and church contributions raised about $360,000, but that was $100,000 short of the funds needed to complete the sanctuary.

"We know we can raise that," Rev. Carr said. "It’s based on faith."