Old Building/New Use: A Church Stays a Church, but the Congregation Changes

By Bob Schwarz

bobschwarz@wvgazette.com

One congregation is coming and one congregation is leaving at a West Side church.

In the meantime, they will briefly share quarters.

Tabernacle of Praise is relocating from Institute, where the 8- year-old congregation has lately rented an old church building across from West Virginia State University.

The congregation will change its name to New Destiny Cathedral Tabernacle Of Praise when it moves into the former Boyd Memorial Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) at the corner of Randolph Street and Delaware Avenue.

"It’s time for us to move," said Bishop J. David Stockton, spiritual leader of New Destiny. "We’ll be a lot more effective right there in the heart of Charleston."

Stockton’s congregation will worship at 11 a.m. Sunday in its old home, where it can seat 75, then reconvene at 3 p.m. in its new home, where it will be able to seat 225. About 50 worshipers now attend Sunday morning services, he said.

Boyd Memorial morphed into United Disciples of Christ two years ago after Boyd merged with First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). First Christian sold its East End building on Beauregard Street to the Kanawha Players, which is turning the building into a workshop and theater, just as the Charleston Light Opera Guild did with a West Side church in the mid-1990s.

When the merger occurred, the United Disciples congregants knew they were selling both buildings and moving elsewhere, said the Rev. Steve Smith, the United Disciples’ senior pastor since last July.

United Disciples members have entered into a lease-purchase agreement with New Destiny, with United Disciples permitted to stay as long as a year. United Disciples will move their 11 a.m. worship services April 22 to the Beni Kedem Shrine Center while keeping their business offices in the Boyd Memorial building.

Smith wants to be out before then, first in rental quarters while the congregation looks for Corridor property on which to build. "We need to move forward with our vision and that’s to get out of there."

Smith, 40, spent the last seven years in Charlotte, N.C., leading a congregation that was relocating from the city to the suburbs. He and his wife, a newly licensed minister in the Disciples of Christ, have one son, a George Washington High senior.

On the West Side, he leads a congregation with 200 active members and average Sunday attendance of 115 in a building where 60 years ago the membership stood at 850. On Sundays, he offers a class on "Rethinking the Church."

"A lot of people think the church isn’t relevant to them any more," Smith said. "We want to figure out how to reach people who are unchurched or underchurched with a relevant message."

Stockton has led New Destiny from the outset, when it grew out of Wildfire Ministries, a campus ministry at West Virginia State University. By day, he is director of student and special programs at the university.

Stockton became a bishop five years ago. "I was asked to oversee a bunch of independent churches."

There were 23 churches, a number that has remained steady as some churches have left the umbrella and others have come under it.

Married and the parent of a 3-year-old daughter, Stockton is also a member of the National Joint College of Pentecostal Bishops.

In the new building, Stockton hopes to offer Destiny’s Child, a day-care program – perhaps just an after-school program at first – specializing in the arts starting May 1.

He also wants to offer Meet Me on Monday, a free meal at 5 p.m. Mondays followed by small-group activities at 7 p.m. "It will be an opportunity to be ministered to physically and spiritually and then go home."

Five West Virginia State homecoming queens, three homecoming kings and two student body presidents have been members at New Destiny, Stockton said, adding that he’ll continue to hold services at 7 p.m. Sundays in the Institute building.

This is more than a story about one church coming and one going, United Disciples’ Smith said. "It’s also about congregations working together. This arrangement will help both of us fulfill the visions we believe God has for us."

To contact staff writer Bob Schwarz, use e-mail or call 348- 1249.

(c) 2007 Charleston Gazette, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.