Congregation’s faith is tested by two fires

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Pastor Roger Williams entered the new year praying that New Horizons Baptist Church would be challenged, and what members got was a trial by fire — two blazes in one month.

The Marysville building was destroyed by arson, and the congregation of about 150 people lost some of its remaining equipment in an accidental barn fire four weeks later. It proved to be a test of faith and forgiveness, and along the way, the pastor says, they found resilience visible to any guest who pulled up a plastic chair for service on Sunday morning in a school gym.

“In the face of that adversity, seeing the ruins of what housed our church ... we were not to the point that we were broken because we knew that that was just a building,” Williams said. “That’s not the church. The church is the people. And we were still strong, and still together.”

Williams lives in a parsonage near the church and awoke Jan. 10 to a deputy sheriff alerting him to the first fire. As church members gathered to watch, authorities offered a disturbing account of the suspected cause, saying they had taken into custody a man they believed had driven a stolen BMW into the building, set it on fire and then watched from a nearby playground swing as it burned.

It was mind-boggling, Williams said, but many members had decided they’d forgive the suspect and pray for him even before he appeared in court on arson and other charges. Then, they turned their attention to how to keep the church going.

While the blaze was still burning, another local church leader had stopped by and suggested that New Horizons could continue its services by renting a school space that his own church had just stopped using. So Williams and his congregants started makeshift Sunday worship services in the gym at Mill Valley Elementary, using a $1,200 set of drums, a mixing board and other donated sound equipment.

“The custodian and I are just trying to help them any way we can,” said Joanne Rausch, a school administrative assistant who helped New Horizons make its arrangements. “You just feel bad for them.”

The sermon that first Sunday focused on hope and forgiveness, but afterward, Williams continued with his planned sermon series, titled “The Life You’ve Been Looking For.”

The church stored the sound equipment, along with other items it collected to keep going, in a trailer at a congregant’s pole barn in Raymond. Then, last week, the barn caught fire, destroying the congre-gant’s welding shop and the trailer. Gone were the speakers, the microphones, the snacks, the children’s toys and coloring sheets, the puppets and the pastor’s wireless headset.

The family was worried about the loss of the church equipment; the church was more worried about the family’s livelihood.

“The second time around, I think a lot of us were just kind of in shock,” church secretary Anita McKee said.

They were relieved to learn the barn fire was not set intentionally but appeared to be an accident that began near an electrical outlet. As the family sorted through details of its insurance, the church started making plans to rebuild with hopes of picking a builder by the end of this week, Williams said.

They’re focused on business as usual.

“God has directions for us,” said Bob Adkins, a member of the deacon board. “He has a task for us to do, you know, to kind of share his word, and we don’t need stuff to do that.”

So they filed into the elementary school Sunday for a worship session, more simplified than usual, that began with the song “Victory in Jesus.”

“Folks were getting somewhat emotional knowing that even in spite of another set of crises, we’re still pressing on,” Williams said Sunday afternoon.

The motive for the arson remains unclear. New Horizons members say they’ve heard the suspect, 30-year-old Stephen Beightler of Philadelphia, had attended the church as a child when it was under a different name.

His court case is pending, and he remained in jail Sunday. He represented himself in a preliminary hearing, and no attorney was listed for him in jail records.