One year after arson attacks, churches still working to recover

On any given night, someone somewhere in the state is guarding the perimeter of his Baptist church to keep from finding it in ashes the next morning.
  
That’s reality in rural Alabama. At least, it has been for the past year. 
  
On Feb. 3, 2006, five small Baptist congregations in Bibb County awakened to find that arsonists had struck their churches during the night, burning three to the ground and damaging two. Several days after, four Baptist congregations in west Alabama found their churches had suffered the same fate.
  
And though three college-age men were arrested a little more than a month later for the nine fires, sporadic arson attacks on churches of different denominations continued to plague the state. Rocky Mount Baptist Church in Talladega County joined the list of arson victims Oct. 8, 2006.
  
But according to Pastor Jim Parker of Ashby Baptist Church, Brierfield, a year of sifting through the ashes hasn’t been so bad. What seems like a brutal step backward has actually put his church nearly “10 years further down the road” in its growth process, he said.
  
“We’re just really blessed beyond measure for all that’s been done here,” Parker said of the heaping donations of architectural and construction services, funding and furniture that his Bibb Baptist Association church has received or been offered in the past year. “We’ve got tools we never had before to really reach out.”
  
Ashby Baptist, one of the first to lose its buildings in the string of arson attacks, is currently meeting in two mobile chapels provided by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM). But it has big plans to get into a new building that’s even bigger and in a better location than the original — and soon.
  
The current Ashby site is tucked away in the woods, but thanks to a church member’s donation, the new building will sit on a 10-acre plot that fronts state Highway 139, a major Bibb County thoroughfare.
  
“We determined with our demographics we needed to build for 250–300 people to meet the needs of the community,” Parker said, adding that the church’s current property wasn’t suitable for that size facility. “We really have the opportunity to reach into three counties where we are. I know God is broadening our tent — we can take in more people because of all this.”
  
The church has cleared the land and broken ground and is waiting now for bids on the building, he said.
  
Things are moving similarly well down the road at Rehobeth Baptist Church, Lawley, which lost its sanctuary the same night as Ashby.
  
“Things are going very well — about as normal as they can be under the circumstances,” Pastor Duane Schliep said. Since the fire, the Bibb Association congregation has met for worship in the fellowship hall that survived and held Sunday School in a mobile chapel from the SBOM.
  
And Rehobeth Baptist, like Ashby and the other burned churches, has received donations of money and supplies from people and churches all over the nation. 
  
Many of the churches also received gifts from Alabama Baptists through the SBOM totaling $192,000 and funds from Birmingham-Southern College, where the three arsonists met as students.
  
Contractors are looking over Rehobeth’s plans for a new facility containing a sanctuary, office and Sunday School space to be built next to the existing fellowship hall, Schliep said. 
  
“We should hear back in the next couple of weeks. We’re predominantly focusing on getting ready to rebuild right now,” he said.
  
Pastor Jack Allen hasn’t had to worry about much of that at his Bibb Association church — Antioch Baptist, Centreville, which, along with Old Union Baptist Church, Randolph, in Bibb Association, only suffered minor damage.
  
About $7,000–8,000 of repairs, replacing the ceiling and some damaged doors, were done at Antioch. But church members decided to keep the burned communion table as a memorial.
  
“It’s a complete miracle that our church didn’t burn,” Allen said, noting that the arsonists appeared to have tried to kick in five doors before finally breaking in and setting a fire at the pulpit. “But I truly believe that God wanted us to be able to help Pleasant Sabine.”
  
Located near Antioch, Pleasant Sabine Baptist Church in Centreville was the fifth church set ablaze that first night of arson attacks. A predominantly black church not affiliated with the Alabama Baptist State Convention, Pleasant Sabine Baptist didn’t have the immediate connections to statewide Baptist resources as Ashby and Rehobeth did. 
  
But Allen was there to make sure the church got what it needed when needed.
  
“Fifty Carpenters for Christ came in and built the church back. It was all done by volunteers,” he said. “The volunteers stayed at our church while they were working at Pleasant Sabine.”
  
Soon Pleasant Sabine will host a countywide revival backed by Bibb Association as a victory celebration — “a big event,” according to Allen.
  
“The whole thing has just been the biggest blessing you’ve ever seen,” he said. “God has kept our churches alive.”