A local church sanctuary will soon be coming down after it was condemned last month.
Dr. Ben Hurt, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in New Hope, told The Dispatch on Monday that his church’s sanctuary would be torn down because it could fall in at any moment. A date for the demolition has not yet been set.
The 30-year-old church, located on Pleasant Hill Road, was condemned in mid-September after a deacon noticed rippling in the roof. Less than 24 hours later, the sanctuary doors were shuttered and an insurance adjuster deemed the building structurally unsound.
At the time the damage was noticed, 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, Hurt said. He declined to tell The Dispatch what led to the sanctuary’s problems.
Two engineers have toured the building since the damage was first noticed. The engineers’ and the church’s insurance company differ on the cause of damage. Hurt declined to release the possible causes of the damage saying, “We’re not really worried about what caused it. It’s coming down and we’re rebuilding it.”
Hurt and several church members met with an insurance adjuster and a project manager Tuesday night, he said. The committee is planning on building the new sanctuary in the same location as the current sanctuary. A size has not yet been determined.
Last month, Hurt said the church was evacuated and cleaned out in matter of hours. However, the pews and stained glass remained. While church members originally planned to remove them, Hurt said that is no longer a possibility due to the danger.
“The engineers have said pews aren’t worth a life,” he said. “It could come down very quickly. The engineer said there would be no warning, it would just come down.”
Until a new sanctuary can be built, the approximately 400-member congregation has moved into the fellowship hall next door.
Sarah Fowler covered crime, education and community related events for The Dispatch.
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