New Home Will Lift Congregation
By Bea L. Hines and Donna Gehrke-White, The Miami Herald
Jan. 13–It’s already a landmark on the Perrine plains.
Nearly finished, Sweet Home Missionary Baptist’s new home — a $7 million beige mammoth of a church — stands out amid the mostly one-story neighborhood of homes and shops on Southwest 184th Street just east of Florida’s Turnpike.
“It’s an awesome building,” said pastor the Rev. Dr. Walter T. Richardson.
It’s expected to be finished in March.
The congregation has patiently waited for the larger sanctuary.
There’s standing room only at Sunday services at its present building just north of the new church.
“It’s four times bigger than what we have now,” Richardson said.
Church membership has grown from 200 to more than 2,000 in the quarter of a century Richardson has been pastor.
Members come from as far away as the Keys and Broward County.
To accommodate Sweet Home’s rising congregation, the sanctuary was designed in a semi-circle with a balcony to seat more people.
“Everybody can see everything,” Richardson said. “There’s no bad seat in the house.”
He and leaders got the idea for the church’s new design by visiting a Tennessee sanctuary.
“It has a similar layout,” Richardson said. “We liked it a lot.”
The church also needed more room for classes and other meetings, so the new building provides more space for offices, classes and conference rooms.
Sweet Home wants to be a good neighbor and expects to open the building for community meetings.
Church members also expect to expand their work in the community.
“We are excited about the opportunity to house more people in the sanctuary. But more importantly, we are excited that we will be able to use it as a center to provide more services to the community at large,” said Al Dotson Jr., a lawyer who grew up in Palmetto Bay and heads the Trustee Board at Sweet Home.
“While it is important what happens in the church, it is even more important what the church does outside of its four walls.”
For example, Dotson said, the church has many ministries covering seniors, youth, brotherhood and substance abuse.
“All these ministries reach out to the people in the community, and through these ministries, people find their way into the church,” Dotson said.
The church will change with the times to help people, he said.
“One thing is certain: There will be change. We have to be flexible enough to move with the times to address the changing needs of the community while remaining true to our values and beliefs,” Dotson said.
The Rev. Emory Berry, Sweet Home’s director of Christian education, predicts the new church will lift the spirits of Perrine residents.
“The new church will clearly define a place that will speak for the people,” he said. “It is where our concerns will be heard and our issues will be dealt with. It’s a place of hope for now and for future generations.”
Member Shirley Richardson, no relation to the pastor, said Sweet Home already inspires her.
She said she was drawn away from a South Miami church that she had attended for 30 years.
She was touched that the pastor takes the time to greet his members.
“They feel that he really cares and they have a sense of belonging. He expresses an interest in you as well as your family,” Richardson said. She also says the church’s teachings offer her ways to grow spiritually.
“If your mind and heart are open to the Word, you will certainly receive your blessing at Sweet Home.”
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