Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992                   TAG: 9203190345
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: N-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THIS CHURCH ISN'T AFRAID OF CHANGE

Occupied at Christmas but finished and dedicated earlier this month, the brick structure on Alternate U.S. 220 in Botetourt County is large enough to meet the needs of members not afraid of change, Moore said.

The congregation successfully raised the money for its third building project in 20 years because it has "an attitude of growth," said Moore. Admittedly, the rapid expansion of the suburbs northeast of Roanoke has helped the 112-year-old parish move from a village church to a center of young family life.

The building was financed through a fund accumulated with three-year pledges, operating budget and a 20-year loan.

During the previous building campaigns, the debt was cleared within a few years. Moore said he expects that to happen again.

He is confident, he said, because he serves a church that really wants to bring the best of contemporary Southern Baptist life to the community.

Bonsack Baptist has grown, Moore reasons, because its leaders still follow a tested Southern Baptist principle: The major goal of a church should be to help people find a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

In the new building, designed by Dick Hughes, everything from the baptistry in the wall of the 750-seat sanctuary to the elevator that guarantees access to the handicapped is meant to make it easy to find Jesus through the church.

Bonsack is one of the few Southern Baptist congregations in the Roanoke Valley Association to grow significantly in recent years, Moore said.

Along with the charismatic-style Rainbow Forest Baptist just to the east and the downtown First Baptist, it can measure its baptisms in the dozens per year. Membership has gone from about 50 new members yearly when Moore came in the late 1970s to 70 or more annually.

This winter alone, since the new church was opened, more than 100 newcomers have been worshiping each Sunday, Moore's figures show.

Bonsack's congregation planned several years for its present sanctuary and spacious fellowship hall. When the congregation relocated to Bonsack's growing northern fringes in 1972, the sanctuary into which 250 could be squeezed - with 25 in the choir - seemed more than adequate.

But after subdivisions began to pop up and improved highways reduced the commuting time from downtown Roanoke, the congregation began to grow.

Bonsack soon added an education wing and did some remodeling to get additional parking. But by 1981, two services on Sunday mornings were required to seat worshipers. Also, large dinners were out of the question in the cramped fellowship hall.

Now that's all changed. A commercially equipped kitchen can feed the 400 who can be comfortably served in the fellowship hall. Nearby, a large pantry stores the staples the church distributes periodically from the Southwest Virginia Food Bank.

The central steeple joins worship and education wings. Above the main entrance, a balcony leads from an independently heated and cooled room. Moore has both romantic and practical ideas for that room, which is intended especially for meetings but is near enough to the sanctuary so that choir and wedding dressing rooms are nearby.

"I can see brides tossing their bouquets down from here," the pastor said, surveying the Botetourt hills in the background.