A church in east Lowndes County is on the verge of collapsing.
Pleasant Hill Baptist Church was condemned by an insurance adjuster last week after a deacon noticed a rippling effect in the roof. Dr. Bill Hurt, the church’s pastor, said the 30-year-old church has been shuttered since last Wednesday.
“The roof is falling in, caving in, giving way, however we want to define it,” he said. “In giving way, it’s expanding the outside walls. In other words, the outside walls are moving as the pressure from the roof comes down.”
Tuesday evening, a church deacon noticed the seam line of the roof was indented. Upon closer inspection, he noticed a rippling in the roof, Hurt said. The deacon went into the attic and saw more damage.
By Wednesday afternoon, the church walls were braced from the outside, and the inside of the church had been emptied except for the pews.
The one-level sanctuary consists of the sanctuary, a choir room, a Sunday school room and four restrooms. It seats 350 to 400 people, Hurt said.
A construction engineer is expected to tour the Pleasant Hill Road building Thursday to determine the cause of the damage.
According to Hurt, the insurance adjustor said the building was “one strong rain away from collapsing.”
Hurt declined to speculate on the cause of the damage but noted the church’s roof was less than two months old. All of the roofs on Pleasant Hill’s campus were replaced after they were damaged in an April tornado.
“It wasn’t like this when they put the new roof on,” Hurt said. “It wasn’t like that a month after they put it on.”
From the outside, the rippling goes from one end of the roof to the other. Inside the building, the ceiling is giving way in the middle and a beam is separating from the structure. The walls have moved four inches on one side and three inches on another.
Depending on what the engineer says Thursday, the building could be torn down, Hurt said.
In the meantime, the congregation is worshipping in the fellowship hall next door.
Hurt said while the sanctuary may fall, the faith of his congregation is strong.
“The building can fall, it’s not the church,” he said. “It’s just a building…God is not confined to a building. You can worship wherever two or more are gathered.”
Sarah Fowler covered crime, education and community related events for The Dispatch.
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