Copyright 2010. The Associated Press. Produced by NewsOK.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ADA A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Life Community Church and Memorial Chapel was held Monday in Ada.

The new Life Community Church, replacing the existing facility at 330 E 14, will be a modern 24,000-square-foot church and 1,400-square-foot memorial chapel that occupies a 10-acre site formerly owned in three parcels by the Pre-Paid Legal Services, the Kerr Foundation and the Chickasaw Nation.

Construction on the church and chapel is expected to begin during the summer and be completed by November 2014.

The groundbreaking ceremony featured presentations by the Rev. Mickey Keith, pastor of Life Community Church; Harland Stonecipher, founder and former CEO of Pre-Paid Legal Services; and other dignitaries, as well as recognition of attending state and local elected officials.

Keith said Harland and Shirley Stonecipher, who attend his church, contributed an estimated $3.5 million for the construction of the new church and a memorial chapel, which is specifically designed to aid bereaved parents who have lost children.

View the photos.

15 photos

View the photos.

Original post:
Church and chapel groundbreaking held in Ada

Reazo Redinger called it a labor of love and faith.

Redinger led 1,000 volunteers who built the new 40,000 square-foot Old Apostolic Lutheran Church off Dike Access Road in Woodland over the last year.

"It's amazing how well the volunteers worked together," said Redinger, the building project manager.

The need for a new location arose because the congregation, launched a century ago and now numbering 5,000 members, has grown too big for its two other locations, one each in Battle Ground and Brush Prairie. Both of those were built with volunteer labor in 1967 and 1995 and will continue to be used.

"Many churches are struggling to attract the youth. We don't have that," said Dave Halme, chairman of the church's board of trustees during construction. "I look out there (at the members) sometimes, and I'm like 'whoa.' I'm 61 years old, but the average age of the congregation is probably in the 20s."

Halme said planning for the new church started in 2000, but the site wasn't rezoned or supplied with utilities until last year. When work began, volunteers were divided into teams based on their trade. Teams worked in shifts to build the $4.5 million church, which leaders say is probably worth three times that. Donations financed the entire project.

"We were fortunate enough to have contractors in the congregation" in addition to architects, engineers and a wide range of trades workers, Halme said. The only work contracted out was for acoustic engineering of the slanted ceiling. The new church features two lobbies, a sanctuary that seats 1,400 people, a dining room, a large nursery and Sunday school classrooms.

All of the work was done on Saturdays and evenings on weekdays after many of the volunteers finished day jobs.

"There was a camaraderie between volunteers, and everybody was working together and enjoying themselves," Redinger said. "People with white-collar jobs came out to do Sheet Rock or something with their hands you could hardly get them to do at home."

Volunteers put in about 55,000 hours.

Read this article:
Congregation completes work on new Woodland church

The former sanctuary of Sharon Baptist Church located at the intersection of Ga. Hwy. 211 and Ga. Hwy. 124 in Braselton will be demolished to make way for a shopping center, according to plans submitted to the town.

But a cemetery located behind the sanctuary and still owned by the church will remain untouched.

Braselton Acquisitions and Development, LLC, is asking the town to annex approximately 3.39 acres that was once part of the church land.

Only tracts A and C are listed for sale and would be zoned general commercial if annexed into Braselton, according to plans. The cemetery (tract B) will not be developed or disturbed.

Braselton Acquisitions and Development plans to build a 6,733-square-foot retail building where the churchs former sanctuary is now located, according to the companys application. Its request includes few other details about potential development, other than construction will finish in spring 2013.

Sharon Baptist Church moved from the site in June 2011 in the wake of the widening and realignment of Ga. Hwy. 124 and Ga. Hwy. 211, not far from the doors of its sanctuary.

In recent months, the Georgia Department of Transportation has been clearing land and moving utilities in preparation for the $5.2 million project at the busy intersection in Barrow County. The crossing also includes a Shell gas station and RaceTrac plans to open a store and gas station in the area.

The DOT estimates that the major overhaul of the intersection will be completed in April 2013.

Sharon Baptist Church is now located on Dee Kennedy Road, Auburn.

The Braselton Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the annexation and rezoning request on Monday, June 25, at 7 p.m. The Braselton Town Council will also hold a public hearing on the planning commissions recommendation commissions recommendation on Thursday, July 5, at 4 p.m. A council vote is expected on Monday, July 9, at 7 p.m.

Read the rest here:
Church slated for demolition for retail building

06-06-2012 16:10 Interior of construction on the temporary worship center for the new Norte Church. The 320 seat temporary facility is situated beside a local home currently being rented for classroom and office space.

See the rest here:
Norte Church Construction - Video

Members of Wesley United Methodist Church of Macomb arent going far for this weeks mission trip.

Volunteers are continuing the churchs annual efforts to provide construction and home repair services for area residents suffering from physical or financial difficulties through a program called Streaming Waters Work Week.

Carolyn Grove, an organizer for the program, said, We take one week out of the year to donate time to people who arent capable, either physically or financially, to do repair work on their homes.

She added that the church typically handles 19 to 21 projects each year, and has served 71 McDonough County residents in the past four years. The church has projects planned for 11 different homes this year.

Weve been helping an elderly couple with roof repairs, Grove said. Roof repairs are a difficult project, and they werent able to do it on their own. Were also helping a young man whos physically handicapped weve got a group building a wheelchair ramp at his house. Thats one of the big ones were really pleased to be able to do.

That man, Aaron Chapin, said that hes grateful for the help.

Ive had this medical problem for a while, he said. Its hard for me to get up and down stairs.

Without the ramp, Chapin said he would be confined to his house.

I wouldnt be able to get in and out of the house, he said. Im just really happy they came in here and did this for me. Im really struggling right now, but this has made my life a lot easier, just having a way to get in and out of my house without getting hurt.

The program began four years ago as an alternative to traditional mission trips.

See the original post here:
Lending a hand

JACKSONVILLE, Ark. (KTHV) Jacksonville is working to clean up it's image by cleaning out church signs along Highway 67/167. Jacksonville churches have posted advertisement signs along Highway 67/167 for decades. But over the years, flooding and weather conditions have taken their toll on those signs, creating a problem for the city.

It is one of the busiest highways in Pulaski County and the perfect place to advertise.

"We've had signs up there for over forty years in that same area. I thought, you know, everything was okay on it but evidently it's not," says Royce Lowe, Pastor of First Assembly of God Church in Jacksonville.

Lowe invested more than six hundred dollars in his church sign along 67/167 but is now being told it must come down.

"I just opened up the mail one day and I had a letter from the Arkansas Highway Department telling me that my sign had to be removed," says Pastor Lowe.

That letter cited a violation of the Highway Beautification Act, saying signs larger than eight square feet required a permit. But because of the location of his sign, he did not qualify for the permit.

"I did send a letter to the highway department asking them about what the rules and regulations were concerning the legality of signs along the interstate and then they turned around and sent a letter to the predominantly churches," says Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher.

He says a city sign committee formed in January is addressing all sign ordinances in Jacksonville in an effort to beautify and maintain the city's image. From yard signs, human signs, and banners, they are updating ordinances to prevent a city nuisance. Worn and tattered signs along the highway, for churches or not, must go.

"It needed to be addressed, it needed to be cleaned up. I've had complaints, in fact, I've had some pastors and churches complain to me before we even created this committee last year about it, wanting to know when I'm going to do something about it," says Mayor Fletcher.

Pastor Lowe says he will comply with the highway department's request, moving his sign to a different location.

Read the original:
Jacksonville says worn church signs must go

wwltv.com

Posted on June 6, 2012 at 5:32 AM

Updated today at 7:10 AM

WWLTV.com Email: webteam@wwltv.com | Twitter: @WWLTV

NEW ORLEANS Firefighters fought a massive two-alarm fire that broke out in an abandoned church in Mid-City on Wednesday morning.

At 3:27 a.m., the first alarm was sounded and a crew made their way to the two-story building near the intersection of Banks Street and S. Salcedo Street. Firefighters arrived at 3:30 a.m. and rang the second alarm at 3:32 a.m. when they saw that the second floor was fully involved in flame.

At one point, thick smoke shrouded the block, as cranes high above the old Jehovah's Witness church shot water streams upon the structure.

There was recently construction being done. The second floor of the church had about 10 one-story apartments recently added. No one was living in there, said New Orleans Fire Department Capt. Edwin Holmes.

An occupied single family home on the right side of the church received damage to the side and the rear, according to the NOFD.

By 4:17 a.m., 43 firefighters were able to get the fire under control, as smoke cleared and nearby residents viewed the scene from a safe distance.

Read more from the original source:
Massive fire rips through abandoned Mid-City church

Featured Posts

Opinion

So grace is a story, and grace is a gift. It is God's character, and it is your ...

June 6, 2012|6:41 am

The Christian minority in Indonesia faced 64 cases of violations of religious freedom last year, up from 47 in 2010, said Theophilus Bela, president of the group. Bela said he was worried about the growing incidence of violence and church closures, as his group recorded just 10 anti-Christian incidents in 2009. There were 40 such incidents in 2008, he said.

At least 22 churches have been forced to close this year, including 18 in the Singkil regency of Aceh Province that were sealed last month, as local authorities either sided with or came under pressure from extremist Islamist groups in this Southeast Asian archipelago that is home to the world's largest Muslim population, according to Bela.

The closures in Aceh followed last month's election of a hard-line Islamic governor. Bela said that after his organization's intervention the closed churches in Aceh began worshipping again on May 13, but unconfirmed reports indicate other churches in the area have since been forced to close.

Violence against Christians has also increased, with most incidents taking place in areas surrounding Jakarta and Singkil, said Bela, who is also secretary general of the Indonesian Committee on Religion and Peace, a group that promotes inter-religious dialogue.

Besides a May 17 incident in which 600 Islamists hurled bags of urine and ditchwater at about 100 members of the Philadelphia Batak Christian Protestant Church in Bekasi, near Jakarta in West Java Province, local authorities closed down a small Pentecostal church about 15 miles west of Jakarta in Tangerang city, Banten Province, after members of the radical Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) attacked it on April 14, Bela said.

Like us on Facebook

Follow this link:
Uptick in Church Closures, Attacks in Indonesia

ONLEY -- Onley Baptist Church has a new steeple after a months-long effort that involved hours of labor by some 20 church members and also the assistance of several area businesses.

The 1907 church building's original steeple had to be replaced because it was in disrepair and was causing leaking problems, Pastor John Burr said.

The old steeple, weighing well over 5,000 pounds, was taken down several months ago and a new, fiberglass steeple, which weighs about one-fifth that, was put up the evening of May 22, with nearly three dozen onlookers viewing the three-hour process.

The church's new steeple is actually a used model and was refurbished by Nathan Thomas of Fiber Tech in Exmore. It is about 30 feet tall, Burr said.

Burr thanked Accomack-Northampton Electric Cooperative for its help during the processes of taking down the old steeple and installing the new one, which involved turning off electricity running through nearby wires. He also thanked those whose electric service was affected for their understanding.

The work to raise the new steeple was done after 5 p.m. to avoid interrupting power to nearby business T&W Block, Inc.

"They've really been gracious and generous to help," Burr said of ANEC personnel.

Daniel Pruitt of DDP Construction Inc. and George Colonna of Colonna Industries headed up the unusual construction project. Both are members of Onley Baptist Church.

"It's all been done debt-free, praise God," Burr said.

See more here:
Church gets new steeple

Cathedral Square Brewery wants to convert a 105-year-old church in St. Louis' Central West End into a brewery, bar, restaurant and event space.

Brewery owners Dr. Gurpreet Padda and Ami Grimes have applied for liquor licenses and, pending their approval, intend to buy the former Holy Corners Second Baptist Church at 500 North Kingshighway Boulevard.

The 40,000-square-foot building is listed for sale at $1.65 million; Cathedral Square's buildout would cost about $3.5 million to $4 million, according to a letter Padda submitted to 28th Ward Alderwoman Lyda Krewson.

Since opening three years ago, Cathedral Square's official home has been 3914 Lindell Boulevard, the old site of the Playboy Club and, more recently, City Grille & Brewhaus. But long-discussed plans to open a brewpub there have yet to materialize, and most Cathedral Square beer is contract-brewed across the state, in Weston.

"We have received significant accolades for the quality of our product and anticipate significant additional growth," Padda wrote in his letter. "We ... are looking for a permanent location for our brew haus and restaurant complex."

Cathedral Square tripled its production in 2011, according to the Brewers Association, brewing about 750 barrels of beer, up from 250 barrels the previous year.

The former sanctuary of the 1907 church would be the brewpub's main seating area, with outdoor dining available in a center courtyard. Cathedral Square's proposed hours would be 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Friday-Saturday.

Padda, who, along with Grimes, also owns Sanctuaria, Diablitos, Cafe Ventana and other local ventures, noted in his letter that Cathedral Square would keep noise, light and other disturbances to a minimum.

"We are not a dancehall. We are not a nightclub. We do not have stadium speakers. We are not predominantly a bar; less than 50 percent of our total sales are bar sales."

Padda last year had considered moving Sanctuaria to a historic church across the street from the old Second Baptist.

View original post here:
Brewery seeks to open in old Central West End church