Major expansion as Baptist church thrives

By Patty Mintz

One of the largest Baptist churches in the province is about to get larger, thanks to its generous congregation.

A $1.5 million expansion to New Minas Baptist Church began when ground was broken in February. The project should be finished by September or early October 2008.

Parishioners are footing the bill; a hefty sum by any account, says senior pastor Robert Knowles.

“We did a capital campaign last year, looking to finance the project over three years. We already have 75 per cent of the money committed,” all of which lends an air of optimism and anticipation to the effort.

“This is a major project. We’re adding on to provide more classroom space (for children and youth ministries), to relocate offices and enlarge the lobby area. Those are a few of the major things.”

The expansion will also provide new space for the New Minas Children’s Centre, a daycare facility open to the community. “It will give us a brand new updated daycare with the ability to handle more children.”

Another advantage, says Knowles, is that almost everything in the expanded new building will be on one level.

“There are more stairs than we want now. We want a good, easy traffic flow that’s accessible to everyone. We want to eliminate the limitations.”

Ron Wright, chair of the building committee, says the current 20,254-square-foot structure will increase by 12,830 square feet.

Another element of the project, he says, is a parking lot expansion that will accommodate the church and the public.

Amazing growth and reach

Built in 1986, the church’s congregation has grown significantly in recent years, says Knowles, who has been pastor there for more than four years.

“We’re quite crammed for space right now. We’re feeling the growing pains of that and we’re making room for people in the community” and beyond. About 500 attend a typical Sunday service, including people from outlying areas, such as Windsor and Greenwood and in-between.

“It’s the largest Baptist congregation in the Valley by far,” and one of the larger of between 150-200 Baptist churches in the province.

“We draw all throughout the Annapolis Valley. We’re becoming more than a community church,” and Knowles says a youthful approach is the key.

“People are looking for an experience of God – to meet God – and they can do that in a number of churches, but style-wise, our feel is a little more relaxed rather than stiff and erect. We try to make it friendly. People get a warm welcome and get a desire to come back.”

Knowles acknowledges contemporary music and other such draws are no magic bullet, but they do make church more appealing to younger parishioners. It’s an important concern in light of the number of churches with aging members that are closing due to dwindling congregations.

“Church doesn’t have to be dead and boring, (but) I’m not interested in watering down the message,” says Knowles. “We remain true to the Bible, but we’re coming up with new ideas on how to reach people.”

SIDEBAR

K: White House to be demolished

For every silver lining, it seems, there’s usually a cloud. In the case of the heralded New Minas Baptist Church expansion, a cloud looms in the form of the impending demolition of “the white house”, a two-storey building owned by the church that houses three vital services for the needy: the Fundy Interchurch Food Bank, Treasure House Soup Kitchen and the church’s own Free Clothing Depot. Only the clothing depot is associated with the church.

Senior Pastor Robert Knowles says the building is old, in rough shape and unsafe; the roof leaks and there is mould throughout.

“The problem with the house is it’s a bit of a money pit right now. It would take a lot of money to fix it up and to get square footage for those ministries (within the expanded church itself), we just didn’t have space.”

Currently, all three services are looking for new space, preferably on the main bus route serving Kentville and New Minas.

“We’ve had a sweet ride for 20 years, so (the church) owes us nothing,” says Bud Little, the food bank’s chairman. “They’ve been most gracious and we’ve had an extremely good relationship.

“We understand totally. This building must cost them $20,000 a year,” for heat, taxes and other expenses.

Little says after 20 years in the spot, “we are now searching for new space. We have a couple of things on the go. We may have a possibility for some land and raise money for a building. In the interim, we would have to go to a rental facility.” Such recourse will be hurtful.

As is the case with the soup kitchen, the food bank has never been asked by the church to pay rent, although they have paid for lights, insurance and leasehold improvements. Out of $28,000 a year in expenses, $25,000 is spent on food for the needy. “If we have to rent (a new space) we’ll lose about half of that, and that’s money we use to buy staples like meat, milk and cheese.”

In terms of location, says Little, “we want to keep in the east end of New Minas or in Kentville. Close to 70 per cent (of clients) are from Kentville.” Twenty per cent are from New Minas and 10 per cent from other areas including as far as Blue Mountain and all of Coldbrook. “We have very large catchments.”

Stats for 2007 show the food bank had 631 families registered and a total of 16,062 visits. “We put out almost 80,000 kilos of food last year,” says Little.

Free clothes in huge demand

Linda Atwell has no qualms about wearing second-hand clothes, having grown up wearing hand-me-downs in a family of 15 in Cape Breton. She has used the services of the free clothing depot since it opened in 1991.

Atwell picks out clothes for her children, grandchildren, family, friends and neighbours – anyone who can’t get there on their own.

“It has been very important to us. A lot of people rely on me because they don’t have a vehicle and I do, and some people don’t have money for gas.”

Atwell doesn’t know what people will do when it’s gone. “We’re going to be lost. A lot of people on fixed income will suffer. A lot of seniors and people from Addiction Services who go there can’t afford to go to Frenchy’s. They have to worry about their shelter and their food.”

Atwell says the volunteers who run the depot have always done an excellent job making sure the items are clean and in good shape.

“People are sad. It’s almost like they’re in shock. People say, ‘what are we going to do?’ I tell them, don’t give up hope yet. Somewhere down the road someone might pick it up.”

Stella Levy of White Rock founded the service 17 years ago.

“It started as a one-day clothing giveaway in the church gymnasium,” says Levy. “We had 200 people show up for that. It was something. With the leftovers, we started in one room and over a period of time expanded into the rest of the house.”

Over the years, Levy, Linda Wright and other volunteers have seen the need first-hand.

On a typical day, Levy says as many as 120 people show up for free clothing.

“We’re getting everybody. It’s all walks of life and we never question anyone. We have grandmothers shopping for their grandchildren, homeless people, women who come out of Chrysalis House and need to set up housekeeping, or somebody coming out of jail and don’t have anything.”

Praying for someone to step forward

Levy says the depot will be sorely missed. “I’ve had so many people tell me they don’t know what they’d do for clothing for their family if they couldn’t come here and get clothes for free. I talk to them when they’re in there now and say just get as much as you can. Take two coats since we won’t be here next winter.”

In the meantime, people pray someone will step forward and offer a new home for the service. “We’re hoping somebody will have a vision for it,” says Levy.

Treasure House Soup Kitchen co-founder Eve Steenbeek wonders what the future holds for the long-running Christian outreach, which has operated one of its weekly soup kitchens – the other is in Kentville - from the house for 15 years.

“We’re in the process of searching. We would like to continue to be linked up with the food bank for the convenience of the clients. We would also like a neutral place. We don’t want to be connected with a church, because it’s a non-denomination outreach.”

She says the New Minas Baptist Church has offered accommodations in a renovated garage on its property, an option that is being considered.

One concern is the expense of moving, “but we live by faith,” says Steenbeek. “It’s the waiting period that is rough.”

Note: Donations of clothing, footwear and bedding for the Free Clothing Depot can be dropped off in an outside bin behind the building. The depot will be open the second and fourth Thursday of each month from 9:30 a.m. to noon until the end of June.

Treasure House Soup Kitchen and Fundy Interchurch Food Bank continues as usual until the end of September.