Since our last posting on building a church was so highly read, top posting of the month and in the top 10 overall, we figured we would post another one on the same subject. This is primarily a financial blog, but our highest readership is when we post something not financial. LOL. Enjoy and thanks for the readership.
Touring the new First Baptist Church Richlands Family Life Center building in construction after the Recommitment Sunday Services a few weeks ago was a happy moment for me. This building has been a vision for many for a long time and seeing it nearing completion brings much joy. As the building goes up one thing that some church buildings have adorned to them on the outside is missing from this building and that being a BIG Christian cross. That leads me to surmise that this might not be your fathers church building but it most certainly would be your mother's church building. Here is the rest of that story.
This new Family Life Center building was brought forth by donations from the congregation to bring enough financial resources together to make a strong down payment before taking out a longer term loan with the lending institution. The last buildings the church built, those two just adjacent to this new one, were brought forth quite differently. That money came from the pockets of many church members who bought "church bonds" for face amounts starting at $250 and up. Others outside the membership bought them as well since the going rate for the interest was a tidy 6%. How do I know this? Well from my piggy bank so to speak as a teenager came $250 to buy a bond myself. The last building the current sanctuary was initially hulled in when the bond money ran out and completed by the men and women of the church who put together enough additional money to buy building materials and finish off the inside the sanctuary with church men doing the labor. Certainly a church building that unlike today's structure that it was actually built, or at least finished, by our fathers.
Few today will remember an issue for that sanctuary was not the building of the structure, or even raising the money. No the issue was the cross that was to sit on top of the sanctuary steeple. Especially a cross with Jesus hanging on it. Hard to remember now but back in the 1960's and early 1970's Baptist were Baptists and Catholics were Catholics and Catholic churches has BIG crosses adorned to the outside of their buildings and Baptist churches did not. Do some history reading and check out the absolute horror that Baptists had concerning a certain presidential candidate that was on the ballot in 1960. Trust me that candidate being a Catholic did not set well with North Carolina Democrats. Only the endorsement of a NC Democratic Governor candidate at that time allowed him to pass muster as ok to vote for by the then dominant NC Democratic party.
This brings me back to the current cross that sits atop the First Baptist Church Richlands steeple today. The pastor of the church at the time of the building of the sanctuary wanted a nice big cross to be placed on the steeple, maybe even one with the body of Jesus on it. Now that was not going over well with several of church's women and most notably my mother. Big crosses were for Catholic churches and not Baptist churches. Despite assurances by the then pastor that putting a larger cross on the steeple would be fine with a Baptist church my mother was having none of it. She basically told the pastor and anyone within earshot, that if we were going to be a Baptist Church, then we were going to be a BAPTIST church and not a CATHOLIC church and that meant absolutely no big cross on the steeple. She made clear to the pastor if a big cross went up she was going to climb up there on the steeple and take it down herself. What she really meant was that someone like me or whoever she could find would climb up there and take it down under her supervisory direction. I knew she meant it and after some shall we say "sprinted Baptist" discussion it became clear to the pastor she was not joking.
So the compromise was had that a smaller more" Baptist appropriate cross" would go up and that is what is sitting up there today. So yes this new Family Life Center might not be your father's church as they did not actually build it like before, but is most surely is your mother's church as there is no big cross anywhere to be found on the outside of the building. So therefore she would consider it a proper BAPTIST church building she would proudly call hers.
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