Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Attalla is amid a project that, when complete, will take the congregation back to its 1860 roots … in the most literal sense.
This church in the Etowah Association is relocating and building.
We’re going back to the original site where the church was organized in 1860,” said Pastor James O. Wallace.
“We’re just thrilled to be able to go back to where the church was in 1860,” said Larry Rose, a member of Pleasant Valley Baptist since 1961 and current chairman of the deacons and the building committee.
This building project will cost approximately $1.2 million. Phase 1 includes a sanctuary that will seat 700(with audiovisual center, welcome center and adjoining nursery), educational facilities (with 17 Sunday School rooms, youth room, choir room, three church offices and equipping center/bookstore), fellowship hall and large parking area, Wallace said. In addition, the complex will feature a ball field and walking trail and have access to a stocked lake. A prayer garden will boast large stones thought to have been part of the 1860 building.
The second phase, he continued, includes construction of a family life center.
The sanctuary and educational facilities may be up by the end of October, Wallace reported. The target for dedicating the complex is Easter 2003.
Building and relocating, the men said, not only will accommodate a growing church, but also open up even more avenues for reaching and ministering to people.
The new, 12-acre site –new to the church only in the sense that it was just recently purchased again — is situated in Rainbow City, only minutes from Interstate 59.
The current church seats 125, Wallace said.
He added that the church may have to begin holding two Sunday morning services to seat everyone until the congregation can meet in the new sanctuary.
Moreover, the area where the new church complex will be located is near areas that are growing rapidly. “It’s such a greater field there,” Wallace said.
Rose pointed out that there are about 1,000 homes in the proximity of the new church site. In those homes are people who need someone to reach out to them in the love of Christ.
Wallace noted that the new site is convenient not only to Rainbow City and Attalla, but also to Steele, Southside and Gadsden.
With the added space, the church will be able to embark on special ministries and events to draw people to Pleasant Valley Baptist. Among the future projects are a day care and kindergarten, something Wallace believes will be a reality within a year; wild game feasts; friend days; Easter productions and drive-in worship services.
The men stated the church has seen much growth in the past year. The average Sunday morning worship attendance is 125-140. Since then, Rose said, Sunday School attendance has doubled.
Building a new sanctuary at the current location was not a viable option for Pleasant Valley. Doing so would have consumed the entire parking lot, Wallace said.
To allow the church to relocate and build, “God has really opened some wonderful doors,” said the pastor. For one, the property where the original church stood was made available. From there, the project seemed to proceed on a fast track.
Groundbreaking for the future church was held the first Sunday in August.
The new sanctuary is actually being built where the original church was believed to have been, Wallace said.
That first Pleasant Valley Baptist was constructed in 1860 with logs that were floating along the Coosa River, Rose said. In 1887, a lumber structure was built about a mile away to replace the log one.
Then, during World War II, the establishment of the military installation Camp Sibert meant Pleasant Valley Baptist had to move, said Rose. For a while, the congregation shared a building with a Methodist church. In 1943, Pleasant Valley Baptist built its own church close to the downtown area of Attalla, where it has been until this pending move back to its original site in a new building.
The current property has been sold to another denomination, something else that came about quickly, Rose added. Though the church is moving, Wallace emphasized it won’t lose its vision of reaching people in the vicinity of its current location.
“We don’t consider that we’re abandoning Attalla,” he said, explaining many of its members live there. The church will continue to minister in Attalla, which is only four minutes away.
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