Liberty Baptist Church builds new parsonage

By Daniel Brunty The Winston County Journal

A pillar of the Noxapater community, Liberty Baptist Church is receiving blessings in the form of a new parsonage.

Thanks to the kindheartedness and hard work of two mission groups and funds raised by the church, the new parsonage is now becoming a reality. The parsonage, which is the house provided by a church for its pastor, will be located right beside the old parsonage.

Liberty Baptist Church Pastor Jim Pender and wife Loretta will be the new residents of the parsonage upon its completion. Pastor Pender gave a brief history of the old parsonage, which will be removed after the construction of the new one.

The original parsonage was built 60 years ago, Pender said. The original parsonage was built by church members from that time period. A lot of the wood that the old parsonage is constructed with came from the property itself. And some of the lumber came from the old Liberty school that was here years ago. So this will be just another phase of history here at Liberty.

As with any older structure, the need for some type of maintenance arose. A couple of years ago, we ran into the realization that the old parsonage was in need of a new roof, with it having so many problems, Pender said. The parsonage, being 60 years old, was bound to run into problems. Over a period of time, it was determined the most feasible thing would be to build a new pastorium. We started raising funds and wanted to get to a specific point in fundraising before we actually got started with the building program.

Once the funds were acquired, the church would receive help in the form of the Mississippi Chapter of Campers on Mission, a national fellowship of Christian Campers who participate in mission activities. Campers on Mission is mostly made up of retired but professional people such as electricians, carpenters, and others, Pender said. We even have a plumber who is actually a member from our church.

Campers on a Mission decided to incorporate the help of another fellow missionary group to assist them with the project. Mississippi Campers on Mission, which I am a member of, knew of and have worked with Westwood Tools of Ministry, Pender said. They recommended that the Westwood group to come in and do the framing as well as the roof and shingles for the project.

Westwood Tools of Ministry is based out of the Westwood Baptist Church in Alabaster, AL. The group is comprised of several churches that travel on missions to assist other Baptist churches all over the United States.

The churches that comprise Westwood Tools of Ministry besides Westwood are County Line Baptist Church in Mississippi, Liberty Baptist Church in Columbiana, AL, Indian Grave Baptist Church in Billingsley, AL, Hillsboro Baptist Church in Hillsboro, and St. Thomas the Apostle in Montevallo, AL.

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Liberty Baptist Church builds new parsonage