When Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, Cropwell, in St. Clair Baptist Association started its building program, it wasn’t with a ground breaking. It began with a day marked by almost $89,000 in offerings with promises of more to come.
That was in 2001. Now, a little more than five years and $1 million in offerings later, the church is putting on the finishing touches and has already begun worshiping in its new sanctuary.
It has done all this without incurring any debt, said Pastor James Blair. The church figured the cost for each stage of the building process. As the money for one stage was raised, building began and fund raising for the next phase commenced. “We felt like that was the best way for us to go,” Blair explained. “We knew we needed more room because St. Clair County is growing, and we wanted to position ourselves to grow the Kingdom.”
Along with raising the money for the building, the church, which has about 300 in Sunday worship, provided much of the labor for the effort. Blair is a retired contractor, and several church members are also contractors, construction workers, electricians or plumbers. Others pitched in with painting, installing insulation, cleaning and preparing the building for use. Before laying the carpet, all the church members also put their elbow grease into writing Scripture on the floor.
The church is still in the process of raising money to brick the outside of the metal building and to complete the balcony and welcome center. When all that is finished, the sanctuary will hold about 1,000 people.
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