`Burned-out congregation seeks land, money for a new building`

By Hal Johnson
Herald Writer

Thanks to a donation by Lighthouse Outreach Ministries in Hermitage, Bethel Life Church has pews to seat 150.

But the Hempfield Township congregation, which lost its church to fire, needs a church to put them in.

Six months after a Feb. 11 fire swept through Bethel Life’s Sheakley Avenue building in Hempfield Township, the congregation still is looking for funds and at least five acres near Greenville to build a permanent church, said Rev. David V. Carr, Bethel Life pastor.

The 100 members of the Bethel Life congregation could use at least a temporary headquarters before winter, he said.

Sunday morning worship services have been at several locations since the fire. The congregation met in the Good Shepherd Center in Greenville and in the Hempfield Township firehall until early June, when worship services moved to the Pentecostal Holiness Conference Campgrounds on Kidds Mill Road in Delaware Township, Rev. Carr said.

The chapel at the campgrounds is comfortable in the summer. However, it has no heat, the pastor said. By early October, worship services will be moved back to the firehall unless the congregation finds a temporary headquarters it could rent or buy, the pastor said.

Hempfield Township Volunteer Fire Department allowed use of the firehall for a nominal fee. However, it has no room for Sunday School or youth group activities and the congregation must set up and take down the sound system and chairs before and after each Sunday service, he said. “Before we can build a church, we need land,” Rev. Carr said. The congregation has had trouble finding affordable land on which to build a new church, he said.

Fund raising also has stalled, he said. The congregation’s building fund has $260,000, thanks in part to a $50,000 donation from an Ohio businessman, he said. But it needs $500,000 to $700,000 to build a new church.

Lighthouse Outreach Ministries donated pews it no longer needed for Sunday services, Rev. Carr said. It also gave Lighthouse Outreach Ministries extra room for its youth activities, he said.

Although it is not billed as a fund-raiser, a gospel concert at 7 p.m. Sept. 4 should draw attention to Bethel Life, Rev. Carr said. McKeithen and Company will minister that evening at the Pentecostal Campgrounds.

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Updated August 28, 1999
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