ORANGE BEACH (TAB) — The past month has been difficult for members of First Baptist Church, Orange Beach — a month starting and ending with loss.
On Jan. 31, the church suffered severe fire damage and this past Friday, Feb. 24, the church lost its pastor.
Pastor John Price, 62, had served as pastor of First, Orange Beach, for 17 years and was in the middle of leading his church through the recovery process of the fire when he died unexpectedly.
The morning of Feb. 1, Price said that while he didn’t know the reason behind the fire at that point, he was grateful for the provision of God through the buildings the church still has and the gracious response of the Alabama Baptist community.
“We appreciate folks’ prayers,” he said. “We’ve been so blessed to have all of our sister churches here call and offer their prayers and offer to help, and we’ve been grateful for the community of Baptists around the state rallying to support us.
“Our immediate plan is to just roll right into the buildings we already have,” Price said. “We’re blessed to have our old church worship center and facilities still standing and ready to go. Between that and our insurance coverage we know we have what we need to recover fully.”
Not only that — he said he also believes this will be a time of “renewal and reinvigoration” for the church.
The members of the congregation will each process what happened differently, he said, but as a whole, “we are sad about the building but at the same time realizing that God’s going to work through this. There will be positive to come out of the negative. It’s an opportunity for a new day at First Baptist Church of Orange Beach.”
To read more about the fire at First, Orange Beach, click here.
Price’s obituary will be in the March 9 issue of The Alabama Baptist.
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