Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 24, 1994 TAG: 9403290123
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``We couldn't have done it without the help of a lot of our lay people,'' he said.
Ayers, whose primary financial support comes from his 19-year job with the Virginia State Police, was referring to the days when he and members of the church mounted ladders and scaffolding to paint the 28-foot-high ceiling.
Members also will save money by doing a lot of the landscaping when weather permits, Ayers said.
The congregation moved into the new $260,000 church in late January. The worship center, built by Building Specialists, Inc. of Roanoke, is the third building the small congregation has built in its 15-year history. But Ayers, 41, has plans for even more construction atop the hill off Old Mountain Road Northwest.
He envisions a Christian school and a recreation center where neighborhood children will be able to spend their idle hours in supervised fun.
Ayers is one of a growing number of men - and a few women - who serve small churches while working full-time at a secular job. The pastor says he felt called to the ministry as a youth in Clifton Forge. He married the daughter of his childhood pastor, the Rev. Gordon Joines.
Ayers graduated from Aurora College in Illinois with a B.A. in theology, but couldn't afford to go on to seminary. His move into law enforcement eventually allowed him to take a degree in Christian counseling at Liberty University in Lynchburg.
The future pastor and his wife, Debbie, were part of the early Advent Christian group that assembled at the Salem Civic Center in 1979 with the hope that three congregations in Alleghany County could be joined by one in the Roanoke Valley. The conservative Protestant group, related historically to Seventh-day Adventists, began to grow under the leadership of mission developer, the Rev. Harold Aldridge.
Two years later, studies of future growth pinpointed the Northeast Roanoke suburbs being developed along Old Mountain Road. The group bought 5 acres with a large house that was used at first as a parsonage.
Today, said Ayers, nearly 2,000 households, many with children, are in the neighborhood that Community Advent Christian serves.
The first building, erected in 1982, was a simple hall with movable chairs and a tiny kitchen and education area. Six years later, a wing with four classrooms and the church office was joined to the original structure.
The new church is attached to the earlier buildings by a foyer, that gives the congregation plenty of space to visit before and after church services.
The new worship center is six-sided with large, clear -glass windows that Ayers says are intended to remind worshipers both of the beauty of God's world and the responsibility to minister to the many small homes visible nearby.
When William R. White, a Boones Mill architect, designed Community Advent Christian, he was aware of Ayers' desire that no worshiper be more than 35 feet from the central pulpit. Extra space also has been provided for chancel drama, gospel music concerts and children's programs.
Members with special skills have added to the building's beauty. One member, Calvin Dame, rescued a large old cherry tree and had it made into a Communion table.
``We have a warm spirit here - I guess every pastor says that - but our people pitch in and do whatever needs doing.''
by CNB