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Richmond Academy

'Upon this rock, I will build My Church'

Congregation members work on sanctuary renovations

Rev. Kurt Thurston, left, and Rev. S. Chad Ross work on mudding the dry wall in the sanctuary being added to Living Word Christian Fellowship on West Main Street. The congregation hopes to occupy the new addition by the first of July. (Palladium Item/Mame Burns)

By JEAN HARPER

For the Palladium-Item

A little church on the west side of town has seen a lot of hard work and activity lately.

Several days a week dozens of volunteers have been showing up at Living Word Christian Fellowship on West Main Street to shovel, hammer, put up dry wall, sand, plant grass seed, and all the other innumerable jobs involved in adding onto a building.

These volunteers come to do whatever needs to be done, and they leap into their work happily and enthusiastically.

After all, it's their own church they're working on.

Whether they're dry walling or landscaping, or making meals for those who are working, each member of this congregation has pitched in to make the dream of expanding their church a reality.

"One hundred percent of the congregation is involved in some type of work on the building," said Pastor M. Steven Ross.

Ross, who was an engineer at Belden for l7 years, designed the addition himself, and has been serving as general contractor for the project. The addition to the building, a large sanctuary, will allow the church to seat approximately 300 people, effectively doubling its capacity.

Ross, who was born and raised in Richmond, started the church 10 years ago while he was still at Belden. At first, he worked as a part-time pastor. But as the years passed, the church grew, and he eventually became a full-time pastor.

This new sanctuary addition will enable the church to continue its pattern of growth, Ross said.

"Financially, numerically, positionally -- and spiritually more than anything else -- the church has seen a steady consistent growth," Ross said. "We've been really blessed."

The focus of the church, which draws its members from both Indiana and Ohio, is, Ross said, a "spirit-filled life emphasis."

He explains:

"There are so many influences over one's life -- work, TV, school -- that it's hard to know what's right ... Only the spirit of God can dictate. Only the Lord knows for you as an individual what's right for you," he said.

Ross said that this approach to life is something that has figured into the current work on the church enabling the congregation to work steadily, but not at a pace that interferes with the balance of their lives.

But even as they take this process of building and remodeling one day at a time they work with a goal in mind: Occupying the building by the first of July.

"People get ahead of themselves. That's why we're not working today," he said, gesturing at the quiet unfinished sanctuary, its drywall nearly ready, but still in need of mudding. "There's no need to rush it."

Revised: August 29, 2007.

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