Would you like salvation with that?

From 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. tonight and every Wednesday through April, the Estero United Methodist Church is offering a novel service to Southwest Florida residents: Drive-through prayer.

The idea behind drive-through prayer is to offer spiritual support to folks not attached to our church community, said the Rev. John Halley, 30, a recent transplant from Los Angeles whos been in his post for 10 weeks. Were on a visible part of U.S. 41, and this is one way to put ourselves out there and to give folks the opportunity to come by and receive the blessing of prayer.

Church member and lay leader Pam Sebby said no one is quite sure how the idea originated, but that it may have come from the Internet.

From what I understand, other churches have done it, so it may have filtered through the pipeline, she said. We did it a few years ago, but there was so much construction on U.S. 41 that we didnt feel safe. We started it back up in the first part of February, and well do it through April every year.

Halley said the drive-through prayer is simply a service, not an enticement to join the church that boasts about 1,100 members during season.

Its not a church-growth strategy for us; its really just an outreach to share Gods love with our community, he said.

Both Sebby and Halley said the success of the service varies from week to week.

Our group has been out there five weeks now and in terms of people stopping (to pray), we might get five or six one week, three another week; a couple weeks we didnt get anyone, Halley said.

Sebby said the most people she can remember stopping to pray is about eight, but that number doesnt cover the actual number of prayers offered.

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God to go: Estero church offering drive-through prayer

Truenorth Church Construction Flyover Feb 2014
Aerial video of Truenorth Church #39;s construction site on February 22, 2014. I used a Gopro Hero 3 Black on a DJI Phantom v1 quadcopter with a Arris CM2000 gim...

By: Matt Cooper

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Truenorth Church Construction Flyover Feb 2014 - Video

Free Sign Up CP Newsletter! Related Historic Church Reaches $14.5 Million Deal to Sell Land for New Atlanta Falcons Stadium Atlanta Mayor Strikes $19.5 Million Deal With One Church for Falcons Stadium Site Atlanta Falcons Stadium Deal Failed With Offer $14M Short of Church's Asking Price Atlanta Falcons Drop Idea of New Stadium at Historic Church Site; Says It's 'Unfeasible' Atlanta's Oldest Black Church Wants $24.5M to Make Way for New Falcons Stadium

March 10, 2014|5:01 pm

Mount Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta held its final service Sunday with a commemorative march to make way for a new multibillion stadium set to be built in the city's downtown area.

"Of course, there are a lot of feelings, a lot of memories that we will forever cherish and be thankful to God that he allowed us to have this experience," said Rev. Rodney Turner, reports CBS Atlanta."But we are excited about what's next."

Turner notes that the church has to be cleared out by the end of the week as construction has already begun in areas nearby. The congregation will temporarily hold services at Carver Bible College in southwest Atlanta beginning next Sunday while they search for a permanent worship site. However, Turner hopes they can eventually return to their neighborhood where they have been for nearly a century.

Back in September, church leaders and members voted on a resolution to sell their church site to the city for $14.5 million. Prior to reaching a deal, the city offered Mount Vernon $6.2 million which they considered an "insult."

At that time, the church had asked for $20.4 million but Atlanta city officials said their offer aligned with a state law that prevented them from going higher than the church building's appraised value. While the majority of the congregation voted for the sale, others opposed on the grounds that the city was destroying the history of their church.

Friendship Baptist Church, another church with historic ties that sits directly across from Mount Vernon, also struck a deal with Atlanta to sell its site for nearly $20 million.

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"I think it's an abomination in the sight of God for the city and the Falcons to consider bringing down two historic black churches for a stadium for a second-rate football team," said Vickie Johnson, a member of Mount Vernon,according to Atlanta-based WSB-TV.

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Historic Atlanta Church Holds Last Service Before Demolition for New Atlanta Falcons Stadium

Bobby Banks of the Lake Wales Bible Church of God oversees construction of a new youth center that he hopes will give the community's young people a place to go and help stop the recent violence. Banks said community members and businesses are getting involved.

LAKE WALES | After 10 reported shooting incidents since November, a Lake Wales minister said he hopes building a youth center will help end the violence.

Bobby Banks of Lake Wales Bible Church of God said he wants to give young people in the community a place with a positive atmosphere where they can learn, get active and develop skills.

"The Lord led me to build this youth center along with the people of the church," Banks said. "We see the condition of our neighborhood; we see the condition of our young people. They've got so much promise in their lives, so much talent. If they don't have a place where it can be developed, all their talents and gifts will be wasted."

This is the first youth center built in Lake Wales and the Bible Church of God is not doing it alone. Community members and business owners are getting involved, too.

"We have people in the city who are excited and believe in what we are doing," Banks said.

Calvin Marion, owner of CLM Learning Solutions in Lake Wales, an ACT/SAT preparation service, is one of those who is helping. He said that in the wake of the recent shootings, Lake Wales needs the youth center.

"This stuff is happening because youth aren't engaged," he said. "With this center, youth will be engaged."

Deputy Chief Troy Schulze of the Lake Wales Police Department said he is in favor of any project that gives the young people a safe place to go and keeps them off the street.

The youth center will target college-age and younger people and take a different, more accepting, approach to educating them on how to be successful in a professional setting, Marion said.

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Lake Wales Minister Hopes Youth Center Will Help End the Violence

Raymond Bernard Thrash was back in the balcony at Mount Vernon Baptist Church Sunday, once again doing something proper churchgoers would typically frown upon.

Fifty-odd years ago, when he was a boy, he sat there chewing bubble gum and eating candy _ being a kid - he recalled smiling broadly. Now, with worship services finished, he was taking snapshots of the place, and taking himself back in time.

Lots of church members joined Thrash in grabbing their final photos and thoughts of the Mount Vernon church building, which will soon fall to make way for a new football stadium for the Atlanta Falcons.

After 53 years at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and Northside drives, the church held its final service there Sunday morning. It was a three-plus hour event marked by a choir that threatened to take the walls down itself, and by a sweet, sad exit processional in which the 200 or so who attended followed the Rev. R.K. Turner down the center aisle and out of the sanctuary, never to return.

Mount Vernons congregation last September voted to approve a $14.5 million agreement to vacate, clearing the way for the Falcons to build on the land, which is located just south of the Georgia Dome where they now play.

A second, older, historic black church, Friendship Baptist, which sits just across the street from Mount Vernon, sold for $19.5 million, and also will move.

The church will have to be cleared out by Friday, said Turner, who is entering his 11th year as pastor. Preparations, necessarily, are well underway. Even as he preached his sermon, construction crews outside were working in the neighborhood. The stadium is slated to open in 2017.

Beginning next Sunday, the Mount Vernon congregation will hold services in its new temporary home at Carver College on Cascade Road in Atlanta. Turner said he has no idea for how long _ probably in the next few weeks well have some conclusion. But the goal, he said, is still to get back to its current neighborhood.

Thats been our goal from the beginning. This is where our legacy is, and this is where we would like to continue, he said. But well just have to see where it goes.

For the time being, he hopes congregants follow him to Carver.

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Mount Vernon congregation takes flight so Falcons can land

Arthur Funk and Sons Church Construction
Construction Projects of Churches, Life Care, retirement Homes, profesional offices in Central PA.

By: Arthur Funk and Sons, inc. Construction Services

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Arthur Funk and Sons Church Construction - Video

WHORTONSVILLE, PAMLICO COUNTY -

It's a day members of the Zion Hill United Church of Christ have been anticipating for three years- the day their church doors reopen.

On Sunday, March 9th, the church will hold their first service after having to shut down in 2011 because of damage from Hurricane Irene. The damage they've fixed so far, according to volunteers, has cost around $40,000.

This day did not come without lots of hard work, time and donations. Two volunteers in the Pamlico County area know that well. Hank and Bettie Williams have invested a great deal of time and effort in rebuilding the historic church, that has been around since the 1800s.

"My part was a little bit of everything," Bettie said. "I helped raise money, I helped get the donations going, I helped get the word out that the church was in need."

Bettie's initiative is what helped the church get new walls, pews, ceiling and carpet. Also a big contributor was her retired contractor husband, Hank. He helped get people from the area in to fix up the problems.

"I am so glad that everything has got done," Hank said. "And I'm so glad that they are getting back in the church."

The way the Williams couple got involved is because of the long life connection Hank has with the church, and the relationships Hank built with people from the community. Hank knew some of the members there since he was a young boy, such as Rufus Greene who has been a member of the church for over 70 years.

"I missed it so much, not being able to come in here on Sundays," Greene said. "Only God knows how my heart really feels."

Another reason why Hank has a personal connection to the church, is because he helped with renovations at the church decades back when he was working for a contractor in the area.

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Pamlico County church reopens three years after Hurricane Irene

VANDER, N.C. (AP) On Sunday, the sanctuary at Freedom Biker Church was a sea of black leather and beards.

Motorcyclists, some of whom braved morning snow flurries, settled into their seats for the morning service.

"I ride for Jesus," read a patch on one member's jacket. "Black leather, tattoos, jeans - proper Sunday attire," read another.

When Forever Comes, a Christian rock band, struck up a number as the lyrics of the song flashed on a screen behind the band.

Then, Associate Pastor Bill Johnson took the stage. Johnson, who is tall, bald and wears a long, braided beard, welcomed the congregation.

"How are you all doing this morning?" Johnson asked. "Welcome to Freedom!"

So began another Sunday service at the church, where suits and ties are in scarce supply but biker regalia is in abundance.

"They don't have to take their colors off," said Senior Pastor J.D. Tew. "They just come."

Cumberland County's branch of Freedom Biker Church got its start in a barn.

Tew had been serving as a pastor at the original Freedom Biker Church in Clayton when he said he felt a call to start a church near his hometown of Autryville.

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NC bikers find Cumberland County worship place

THE FIRST Unitarian Church of Seattle was built in 1889, only two years after Samuel Eliot, the 25-year-old son of Charles Eliot, president of Harvard University and perhaps then the most famous educator in the Western Hemisphere, arrived in Seattle to help its Unitarians get organized and build this sanctuary.

Local architect Hermann Steinman presented the drawings as a gift to the new congregation. Soon after the construction commenced mid-May 1889, the churchs rising belfry was easily visible around the city. The construction, here on the east side of Seventh Avenue between Union and Pike streets, was not affected when most of Seattles business district was consumed by the Great Fire of June 6, 1889.

The photograph by Asahel Curtis was recorded about 20 years later most likely 1909, by which time the Unitarians had moved on and turned the building over to other users. In the Curtis photo, the church building is squeezed on the right (south) by the popular Dreamland, a large hall built as a roller rink in 1908, but then soon given to dancing and a great variety of assemblies, many of them labor-related and politically liberal. These politics also fit the activism of the AOUW (Ancient Order of United Workmen), which used the old church for its Columbia Lodge soon after the popular Unitarians had moved to Capitol Hill. The Columbia name is signed on the steeple.

The First Unitarians dedicated their new, larger church on Boylston Avenue in 1906. It had 800 seats, the better to stage the churchs productions, which included concerts of many sorts, adult Sunday schools led by University of Washington profs, classes in psychology and comparative religion, and plays by the Unitarian Dramatic Club.

Dramatic presentations continue on the original church site with ACT Theatre. Jean Sherrard used his recent benefit appearance on an ACT stage as an opportunity to pose the theaters support staff at its Seventh Avenue side entrance for this weeks Now. To quote Sherrard, I dont know if any are Unitarians or not, but they are surely united in their vision for a transcendent theatrical experience.

Check out Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrards blog at http://www.pauldorpat.com.

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Built for show, sacred and otherwise

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) A steam shovel reshapes the landscape by Route 28 on the North Side. Its just down the road from the site of the first Croatian Roman Catholic Church in the western hemisphere.

Citing structural problems, the diocese demolished Saint Nicholas Church a year ago.

Susan Petrick, of the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation, says construction of St. Nicholas Church shows the dedication and need for the Croatian people to build something that was their home away from home.

The Troy Hill activist recalls the glow of Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and the hope of rebirth on Easter Sunday.

She says the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has approved a historical marker on the site where St. Nicholas stood.

Were going to have a beautiful memorial wall, she says. And the last piece sandblasted into the wall will be Saint Nicholas Church. Next to it on the right will be a seating area.

Jack Schmitt, of Preservation Pittsburgh, says the memorial path will extend from the River Trail to the 31st Street Bridge.

Right now theyre doing the excavating, he explains. And theyre building the retaining walls. It should be done by November of this year, when there will be a ribbon cutting.

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Historical Marker Going In At Site of Old St. Nicholas Church