Imagine your church property being defaced or snatched. Two Alabama Baptist churches don’t have to.
Center Hill Baptist Church, Hanceville, was vandalized, and Valley View Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, was robbed.
According to Center Hill Baptist Pastor Johnny Crumpton, a couple of people who assist with church work entered the building Feb. 3 and quickly discovered that it had been broken into and areas had been ransacked. They immediately left the building and called 911.
Crumpton, a bivocational pastor who also has worked as a firefighter for more than 20 years, was in a training class when the discovery was made.
He said the damage, which authorities believe occurred sometime in the early morning hours, was most severe in the sanctuary and pastor’s office.
In the sanctuary, a Christian flag was burned. Because the flag was comprised of mostly synthetic materials, Crumpton said it melted into the floor, damaging an area of carpet in the process.
A Bible was torn up and thrown face down. The pulpit was pushed over on the Communion table, and a floral arrangement was hurled down the center aisle.
Satanic messages were written on and carved into church property. A 4-foot cross was ripped off the sanctuary wall and turned upside down.
Crumpton said another disturbing discovery was the bullet hole in one of the sanctuary’s stained glass windows. It was the window depicting Christ’s resurrection.
But the East Cullman Baptist Association congregation wasted no time fixing what had been broken or vandalized.
“The church just rallied around [each other],” Crumpton said. “I was really impressed with our people.”
While the damage was discovered on a Friday, church members organized a workday for the next day, and by Saturday evening, everything except the carpet had been repaired for the Sunday morning service.
According to Crumpton, the 10 square feet of damaged red carpet will be difficult to match because of dye issues and the carpet may have to be entirely replaced, which will be a costly repair. In all, the vandalism caused about $16,000 in damages. However, the congregation responded not with resentment but “overwhelmingly with a very positive attitude,” Crumpton said.
In Valley View Baptist’s case, it wasn’t just church members who responded positively to a bad situation but community members as well.
A few weeks ago, church members discovered approximately 3,000 pairs of shoes, purses and other items the Tuscaloosa Baptist Association congregation had been collecting for needy people in Honduras missing from a storage unit.
According to Family Pastor Mark Seagle, the items are collected and shipped to the Central American country each March so that they are waiting to be distributed by a church missions team when it arrives to work with Baptist Medical & Dental Mission International.
“We go into the most remote parts of Honduras,” Seagle said, adding this year’s trip is slated for July.
According to him, after the theft was discovered, an announcement was made to the congregation. Word spread about the situation, and people outside the church stepped up to help. The police officer who wrote up the report on the theft gave the first donation. Valley View proceeded to raise $2,400, and a connection was made with a business to purchase almost 3,000 pairs of shoes for 50 cents each.
First Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa donated 432 pairs of shoes, and Maxwell Elementary School in Duncanville donated 1,000 pairs of shoes.
“We’ve really seen God truly turn this into incredible good,” Seagle said, referencing Ephesians 3:20.
As of press time, authorities had not apprehended the perpetrators in either case.
Share with others: