The congregation at Steele Baptist Church celebrated Easter Sunday this past weekend, and for the church members there was a little extra to celebrate and be excited about. Celebrating the rising of Jesus Christ is the reason for the celebration at Steele Baptist over the weekend, but sitting just outside the family life center where Sunday services were held, is reason for growing excitement and soon to come celebration. The church’s new sanctuary building has also risen from the red clay slab that sits exactly where the old sanctuary stood before being heavily damaged by lightening in 2018. It has taken more than three days to erect this building, but during this sanctuary rebuild project the congregation has really come together over last 14 months.
On February 7, 2018, during the early morning hours the church’s sanctuary was struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm. Due to a fire ignited by one of the bolts of lightening, the end result was a total loss of the sanctuary. The process of cleaning up and clearing out the remains of the old building, and rebuilding the sanctuary has been a long and tedious process. But the members of the church came together and had unquestioning faith in God’s plan, and by this time next year the congregation looks forward to celebrating their first Easter Sunday in the new sanctuary.
Pastor Joey Smith said that it may be hard to believe, but the tragedy of losing the sanctuary has served to bring his congregation closer together. “Our congregation has been steadfast and resilient during this entire process,” Smith said. “I believe that working through this has pulled our congregation closer together. We have worked together throughout this process and at this point in the build process I’m starting to see some excitement among our members because we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and God’s plan coming full circle.”
In many circumstances, dealing with a tragic event that results in the loss of property, dealing with the insurance company in the aftermath can be challenging. However, in this circumstance Smith said that working with Brotherhood Mutual has been nothing short of amazing and just another blessing. “We are extremely blessed to have our family life center where we have been able to hold every service since we lost the sanctuary,” he said “That allowed a big help which is time. This allowed to work with Brotherhood Mutual Insurance to ensure that everything was as it should be, and they have been truly wonderful to work with during this rebuild.”
Working through the process of rebuilding the sanctuary has only served to show them just how blessed they truly are. Smith said that the help and support from the community and local churches has been truly touching. SBC has received love offerings collected by churches located close by and as far away as Simpson County. “The blessings of the outreach from local churches, and churches from outside the county has been truly moving as we had heard from five to seven churches within a month,” he said. “To know you have the support of your sister churches close to home, and even further away just lets us know just how very blessed we are.”
One of the churches that collected a love offering for Steele Baptist Church was their sister church Ephesus Baptist Church located within five miles of SBC. Ephesus Pastor Chris Harrison said that the congregation came together and wanted to do something to help their neighboring church. “Our congregation wanted to help our sister church so some of our members came together and decided that we would collect a love offering to give to Steele Baptist,” he said. “I’m glad that we could help and we know that we are all working for the same purpose.”
The church will be holding numerous fundraisers this summer to help alleviate some of the additional costs of the building project. If anyone would like to be part of the fundraisers or donate to the building project, they can contact Pastor Joey Smith at 601-594-1092.
Pastor Smith said they have done there best to trust in God’s plan for them and stay out of the way. “We are planning on being able to hold services in the new building by either late summer or early fall,” Smith said. “That is as long as the Lord is willing and the weather cooperates.”
