Building as a miracle

Becky Holland

AMERICUS July 27, 2008 12:03 am

— Webster defines the term “miracle” as an event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things, or a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event, or one transcending the ordinary laws by which the universe is governed.
Ask Steven Golden, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, his definition of miracle, and his eyes will brighten as he nods toward the building addition going on in the rear of the rural Sumter County church.
Actually the sight of construction at any church, much less a rural church, is not really that uncommon what with the changing times. Churches today are expanding just as quickly as a local Wal-Mart or Lowe’s because of the desire to meet the spiritual, emotional and mental needs of the community.
What makes the new addition a miracle?
Golden explained, “We have been able to build our new building through the volunteer efforts of mission teams, donations from the community at-large.”
Golden remarked, “We are averaging around 100 in Sunday School, and 130-150 in worship. And I just felt like the Lord wants us to reach more young families through offering a variety of ministries. This building will house a new fellowship hall, a children’s department, and will offer more adult Sunday School classrooms.
“Facilities do matter, and we have felt like we needed to get more families involved in Bible study,” said Golden.
Golden said that Bethel Baptist Church has been a family-oriented church for a number of years, with “many generations coming here.”
“I was serving as chairman of the deacon body at the time, and stood behind the pulpit and told our church that now was the time for us to build,” said Doug Carreker. “I felt like the Lord was leading us in that direction.”
Bethel Baptist Church sits an area of Sumter County that is more comparable to “Green Acres” than “Silicon Valley,” so the natural question would be, where would the resources come from — financial and material?
Golden had no doubt that all would be provided, but he and Carreker and church members have been sincerely touched by exactly how the building has come together.
All they had to do was ask some important friends like the Bold Mission Builders of the Stone Mountain Association.
Bold Mission Builders started out as a team of churches to help a church build a building from “the slab up, if they didn’t have the finances,” said Joel Brown of Conyers.
Brown is coordinator of the Bold Mission Builders. Though Brown has been an official team leader since the early 1990s of Bold Mission Builders, it was a mission trip with his father John, and a building missions’ team from the Noonday Association in North Georgia called Builders for Christ that peaked his interest in missions.
“Chuck Collins asked us to go with him to Adel, Iowa, in 1979-80, and since then I have been on several trips,” he said. In fact, Brown, an ordained minister, and his wife Bernice were appointed by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to serve as mission service corps missionaries. One of Brown’s main responsibilities is to coordinate the Bold Mission Builders’ projects.
And this time, Bold Mission Builders is helping one of it is own.
Bethel Baptist Church has joined the group on a number of mission teams. According to Carreker, a former pastor of Bethel started “a mission team from Bethel. We have been on several trips with the Bold Mission Builders.”
Several teams, including one from Covington, have been to Bethel Baptist Church to assist with the building of the new fellowship hall/children’s department.
“This is the first time we have actually helped one of our own. We helped Shiloh Baptist Church, and have helped with the renovations of the Friendship Association campground,” said Brown.
“We have done the roofing here, hung sheet rock, electrical and plumbing,” he said. “It is such a blessing for us, to be a part of this, and we will be back with another team.”
Around the first of the year, Bethel Baptist Church poured the foundation. In mid-July, Carreker and Golden can’t help but smile.
Expected finish date, according to Brown, is some time around “Christmas, only because Doug doesn’t want to get anyone overly anxious.”
Golden said, “We are hoping for Betterment Sunday.” That, according to Golden, is sometime around November.
“I didn’t think they could get done what they have,” said Carreker, “in the amount of time that they have.”
Carreker, as liaison between the church and teams, pretty much “does whatever is needed to make sure that the job gets done. We have been able to do all we have done with free labor,” he said.
Golden just smiles, “It is supernatural.”
Carreker wipes the sweat off his brow, and nods, “Praise God.”