Three Mobile Bay-area churches say fires in 2003 brought new strength, growth

From where he stands near the ashes of his former place of worship, Pastor Max Dempsey can see his church’s past, present and future — literally.
   
The sanctuary of his church, First Baptist, Citronelle, burned down in September 2003, making Dempsey’s the second of three churches in the Mobile Bay area (Baldwin and Mobile counties) to lose a building to fire in a three-month period that year.
   
It was a tragic loss, Dempsey said. Citronelle members who 60 years ago had laid the sanctuary’s brick and crafted its stained glass windows themselves watched as flames reduced their beloved building to charred remains.
  
But despite the fire, Dempsey said his congregation has experienced anything but burnout in the 18 months since.
   
“We’ve been meeting in Citronelle High School, just a few blocks from where our church building was, and we’re only growing all the time,” he said. 
   
Concrete has already been poured for the new sanctuary —  just blocks away from the original site and the high school. Builders are shooting for completion at the end of the year.
   
But members aren’t too anxious to leave the school. 
   
“So much ministry has gone on in that building. It’s become a sacred place — hallowed ground because God’s done a work there in us,” Dempsey said. 
   
“And a large number of our congregation’s members have joined our church since we lost our building, so the school is the church building they know.”
   
He said First, Citronelle, has learned a lot since 2003 about what the church really looks like. 
   
“That’s the number one thing God has taught us,” Dempsey said. “The church is the body of believers coming together to worship — not a building and not a facility. We’ve lived and breathed that idea.”
   
What does it look like to be a congregation suddenly lacking a sanctuary?
Dempsey said it’s baptisms that happen in lakes and swimming pools, members who become experts at setting up and tearing down chairs, and Sunday School classes that maneuver around desks and physics notes left on dry erase boards.
   
And though it takes a lot of effort to be a “church on wheels,” unity has been a product of all the change, he said. 
   
“It’s an exciting time,” Dempsey said. “The fire is one of the best things that ever happened to us as a church.”
   
Jerry Henry, pastor of First Baptist Church, Fairhope, seconds that.
   
First, Fairhope, lost its sanctuary just a month after Citronelle, and like Dempsey’s church members, Henry said his have been the picture of flexibility — and their number continues to grow.
   
“We met sometimes in places with no air conditioning, and people stayed with us. We brought in heaters in the winter and ran out of fuel but things held together,” Henry said. “God has pushed us out of our comfort zone and normal routine, but everyone has had a real servant’s heart.”
   
Dempsey joked that search committee members “never mentioned a fire and a hurricane” four years ago when the church called him to pastor. “They never taught in seminary what to do when you lose your sanctuary,” he said.
   
But for First, Fairhope, a seemingly tragic time has been a time God has blessed, Henry said, growing their congregation to the tune of 51 new members by baptism and 122 by letter since the October 2003 fire.
   
And if the situation has sparked added growth, the church is fortunate — they’ve got 18 months of location flexibility to go before the new facilities are complete.
   
“We’re ready for our new building to be done but we’re learning to adjust. God is working in our situation,” Henry said. “We’re learning to spread out and meet where we can.”
   
It doesn’t seem likely that scattering your flock in nearby houses for Sunday School classes and in civic centers and school buildings for worship services would bring unity, but Henry said it’s done just that.
“Though we’re excited about getting in a new sanctuary, we’ve adjusted to being inconvenienced,” Henry said. “Sometimes these things draw you together.”
   
Billy Nale, pastor of First Baptist Church, Foley, said his church is having a similar bonding experience.
   
First, Foley, whose Christian Life Center (CLC) burned in August 2003, has since crammed its Sunday School classes into houses, church offices, a modular building brought in by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions and even an old funeral home the church purchased years ago.
   
“It’s been tight, and in some of our classes they are sitting close together, but they’ve held together really well,” Nale said.
   
At the time of the fire, First, Foley, was in the planning stages of expanding the CLC, but God suddenly started their new building plan from the ground up. 
   
Now the new two-story building will house more education space, a library, a choir rehearsal room and a larger fellowship hall, as well as offering the option of a new day-care ministry. “We’re thrilled about the possibilities, and the congregation has been amazing,” Nale said. 
   
Though the building process has been slowed by various delays — such as two of the “hardest rains we’ve seen in a hundred years,” Nale said — the church is excited and pressing forward as planned.
   
The church aims to complete the project by April 2006.
   
“Sometimes construction and transition like this can be hard for a congregation, but the unity has been great. They are continuing to invite people to Sunday School even when classes are tight.”
   
Bottom line? “God has blessed,” Nale said. And his church — a work in progress — continues to grow.
   
To read the stories of the 2003 church fires in the Mobile Bay-area, visit www.thealabamabaptist.org.