Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990 TAG: 9003162559
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: W-8 EDITION: WEST
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The outdoor sign says: "You Can Do What You Please -- When What You Do Pleases God."
In his study paneled in attractive maritime scenes Whitaker offers other marketing counsel:
"People will come to a church they notice, but they won't go out of their way to notice a church."
In 11 years the adult membership of the independently constituted Brambleton Baptist congregation has transformed an abandoned shop into a church building which the pastor hopes enriches the community.
Though still small in numbers - about 50 regularly attend worship and there are no more than 22 households - Brambleton Baptist is growing solidly. It typifies the kind of church found all over Western Virginia and probably like many of the early Christian era.
Whitaker, its 41-year-old shepherd, still earns part of his living as a Roanoke County school-bus driver. His wife is a supervisor at Community Hospital.
The pastor says that by the time his three teen-age daughters are on their own and the Brambleton Baptist building is finally paid for he hopes to give his full time to its ministry.
Meanwhile, he said, he's not trying to compete with nearby Southern Baptist congregations. Grandin Court and Cave Spring are at about equal distances to the east and west of the independent group.
"Our selling points are friendly fellowship from the time a stranger enters along with our literalistic Bible interpretation and now our nice facility."
It's the latter travelers along the 3600 block of Brambleton notice these days. In recent months a sharp white steeple with accompanying plastic wall cross have been added to the neat gray-sided building. The parking lot is freshly paved. On Sunday and Wednesday nights light shines through blue Fiberglas windows.
Even the name is new. "Maranatha Baptist" for a decade has taken the name of its neighborhood and Whitaker says it's becoming better known.
"When we named this church, we thought the name Maranatha ["be opened" in Bible tradition] would arouse curiosity or would mark us as a Bible-centered church," the pastor recalled.
But it didn't work that way. The people without a Christian background, the target of Brambleton Baptist's ministry, were confused by the difficult syllables. Nor did the name identify the church by location, a key reason why Whitaker and his laity chose Southwest County for their new church in 1979.
Last year Maranatha became Brambleton Avenue Church. The pastor says the name change and the remodeling of the original worship center have done more than anything else to increase attendance and give the church a bright future.
The warm fellowship of which Whitaker speaks proudly has been enhanced by members using their hands as well as their heads in building their own church. They have done nearly all the work themselves.
Carrying in his head cost estimates since the congregation was formed 11 years ago, Whitaker totaled up $227,000 spent to achieve Brambleton Baptist's attractive inside and outside.
For that members have a worship area seating 85 on comfortable movable chairs. It includes a combined baptistry and Communion table, an innovative piece of furniture Whitaker expects to use soon for some of his new members.
Entering from the side parking lot, worshipers enjoy a small atrium lit by the sun or a memorial chandelier. The staircase goes up to seven large classrooms and library and down to a partially finished fellowship hall and kitchen.
The nursery's the nicest room," Whitaker observes. "A church is not going to go anywhere these days without a pretty and safe place for the babies."
When the church observed its 11th anniversary in January, its sole pastor summarized its history.
Reared in Lenoir, N.C., he graduated from Piedmont Bible College in Winston-Salem and came to Roanoke as an assistant at Grace and Truth Baptist Church. With his wife, Linda, and the girls he was soon ready to strike out on his own forming his own congregation.
A paralyzing ice storm marked the first meeting of interested people in his Southeast Roanoke home, but the power - literally and symbolically - did not fail the Baptist group.
The Whitaker home and a Roanoke radio station were meeting places for several months after which the Cave Spring Lions clubhouse was rented for two years.
By November 1981 the dream of a real church came closer. Having decided that Southwest County could support an independent Baptist church, Whitaker now likes to tell how God impelled him to check on a dilapidated structure, boarded up and surrounded by weeds.
The building, he discovered, had been successively a house, an office and a prospective beauty salon, but its owner, George Gross, had abandoned his plans a decade before.
With a price tag of $110,000 for its business value, the Brambleton congregation of about 20 seemed to have no hope of buying it. Gross' generous terms made purchase possible and the pastor says God's inspiration did the rest.
Over the next six years, pastor and members worshiped in and renovated the original building. When debt was cleared on it, the Louise Ellers Education Building, the three-floor structure adjoining the rear, went up under members' hands.
by CNB