Columbiana church, school building on faith

Proverbs 29:18 states, “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” and Bethel Baptist Church, Columbiana, is definitely a church with a vision. Over the years as God spoke telling them to expand their facility and ministry, they did just that — even when they had no money to pay for the expansion.
   
After acquiring a loan to build a new church facility, the Bethel congregation decided to depend on God for funding with future building projects, and God has blessed their faith time and again.
   
“We’re not going to borrow any more money for building,” said Pastor Allen Dennis, who has been with Bethel since 1988. “Everything we do from now on we’re going to just trust and do it as God provides.”
   
In 1997, the 105-year-old Shelby Baptist Association church finished building a sanctuary that would accommodate about 900 Sunday morning worshipers, more than twice as many as they currently average. At the same time, they built a facility large enough to house a school that God inspired them to establish. A few months later, Cornerstone Christian School in Columbiana was formed.
   
Over the years, school enrollment increased and Bethel discovered that they needed more space for classrooms.
   
To meet this need, the church built more rooms around the sanctuary and bought four doublewide trailers as money became available. Then, God proved to the church what He does for His followers when they have faith in Him, Dennis explained.
   
About two years ago, Bethel’s staff realized the school needed a gym for various student activities, and again the church did not have enough money to begin the project. Yet, they still began clearing the land for the facility knowing that God would provide their needs.
   
Students and school staff began meeting at the construction area every Thursday morning to pray for the gymnasium, an activity that has continued throughout the entire project, according to Dennis. Soon, God gave the school enough money to pour the slab, he said.
   
Later, the school needed to order the building, but lacked the $10,000 needed to place the order. As the church and school continued to pray for a miracle, one student’s parents donated the entire amount.
   
Once the building was ordered, the church needed $80,000 to pay off the balance of the building before it could be delivered. Three days before the building was scheduled to be delivered, the church wrote out a check for $80,000 even though the money was not in the bank at the time.
   
“The building got there on a Monday and the money was there,” said Dennis. “God (also) provided enough money to erect the building.”
   
Even though Bethel is short at least $300,000 to finish the gymnasium, they have no doubt that God will supply their needs as He has done so many times before.
   
“We’ve been blessed to see Him work like that through our church and the land we are on now,” said Dennis. “We just believe that when God says to do something, we should do it.”
   
Dennis believes that “If we walk by faith, seek God’s will and keep a vision of something bigger than us, God will bless us beyond our imagination.”