Kindness built Wood Co. church

Published: Sunday, 12/7/2014 - Updated: 2 minutes ago

BY MATT MARKEY BLADE OUTDOORS EDITOR

WESTON, Ohio Pastor Chris Boggs was in a particularly troubling quandary a few years ago. His house of worship was too small, difficult to access, impossible to expand, and overwhelmingly impractical.

He needed a new church, but the housing bubble had just burst, banks had locked the vaults and loans were tough to acquire, especially for a tiny congregation looking at the huge debt it would incur to open a building fund.

There was no way we could borrow the money, Pastor Boggs recalled.

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So they set out to build a new facility with cash debt free. They wanted the church to be a community center as well, to give the youth of this village in western Wood County a safe place to gather. From the beginning, Pastor Boggs acknowledged it would be an arduous task and take years to complete. Some in his flock were skeptical, while others just left.

The concept was not so well received at first, he said about building the Sonlight Church and Community Center debt free. People want things now, but that was not the reality we were faced with at the time.

The pastor and the remaining members scrambled to raise money. They did the traditional churchy stuff spaghetti dinners, white elephant sales, raffles but Pastor Boggs knew those efforts can hit the ceiling quickly.

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Kindness built Wood Co. church