Building the church, literally

Many believers today are taking Christ-likeness to a whole other level - wielding hammers, nails, wood planks and stone to follow the Nazarene family business of Jesus, before his earthly ministry.

When it's time to build, expand or remodel a religious facility, churches usually benefit from having laity that can chip in to help with construction or detail work.

Whether it's a retired plumber who donates his services or a stay-at-home mom who paints new classrooms, church members who contribute to a building project with their time and effort often save their church thousands of dollars, besides being a big blessing.

At Central Baptist Church, volunteer building this year helped save the church about $80,000 - half of the estimated cost to complete its new educational facility with nine classrooms.

Member Ted Parson, an employee of B-Line Filter and Supply, said about 25 men and women worked to construct the classrooms inside an existing shell of a building. They plan to have a consecration service for the new facility on June 8.

"It's mostly retired men who have various backgrounds that we've pulled from," he said. "We have just about completed it."
The church also benefited from a labor of love by the Texas Baptist Men Church Builder Retirees - a ministry of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

About 20 retirees from the group stopped by Odessa in February to set up shop at Central Baptist, volunteering their services for two weeks.

"They saved us a lot of labor in putting the materials in," Parson said.

The Rev. Johnny Thomason, pastor of Life-Change Baptist Church, said several retired building contractors attend his church and started remodeling projects in December to transform their facility from its former days as Temple Baptist Church.

"We're trying to do it all ourselves instead of paying big bucks," Thomason said.

While the revised floor plan, new baptistery, stage, restrooms and added classrooms fostered a sense of camaraderie, it ended rather quickly from lack of building permits.

"The guy who's building just started building - I guess he was just so eager to get it done, he forgot to get (the permits)," Thomason said. "I didn't know that they didn't have one, but we need to do what's right - we need to make sure that we're not breaking the law or anything."

After the workers obtained the proper permits, Thomason said work progressed slowly as the waiting increased.

"We're still waiting on the city and now we have to wait on the fire department to come," he said. "We've got it pretty well finished, but we have to wait on them until we can do anything."

At Lutheran Church of the Risen Lord, the Rev. Michael Mueller said his parishioners are faithful to help with various maintenance tasks or improvements.

A ‘Honey-Do' list of specific projects is arranged in the church's foyer for volunteer undertaking.

"It tells you basically we need you to do that, paint this, etc. - it runs a great range," he said. "It could just be changing light bulbs."
Mueller said church volunteers recently remodeled a youth room, built an office credenza and decorated the church's prayer room - all for material cost.

"It's part of time and talents - just a labor of love," he said.

Even in the building of a new, $20 million, 80,000-square-foot campus, CrossRoads Fellowship was able to save a bit of cash by doing some work in house, said the Rev. Reggie Baker, the church's administrative pastor.

"You get the added bonus of doing it yourself and the enjoyment of seeing the project completed," he said.

The church saved hundreds of thousands as members donated supplies at cost, built the commercial kitchen and painted thematic decorations for the children's area.

"Our latest, big project was that we completed the pond in front of the chapel," Baker said. "We had it constructed, but we weren't really pleased with the results."

Using a little ingenuity, Baker said he invented a liner concept to get the job done, which about 50 volunteers helped to assemble - saving the church about $20,000.

"People know that it makes a difference in the way that your campus looks," he said. "They're willing to put in their own time, talent and energy, and it shows that they care."