THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507060203
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PAM STARR, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 182 lines
AT 6:30 LAST SUNDAY morning, the first of 900 finely dressed parishioners began arriving at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.
They parked their cars in the grassy lot across Kempsville Road, as they had done for years, or at Tallwood Elementary School, then walked to the tiny brick building on the corner of Centerville Turnpike.
Except for the unusual earliness of the gathering, the 126-year-old congregation appeared merely to be socializing outdoors before heading into the church for services. But one detail hinted at a different purpose: an abundance of tennis shoes worn with dresses and tailored suits.
This was not just any Sunday. This was the day the 1,000-member congregation would finally worship in its $2 million sanctuary a half-mile down the road. And they had come prepared to march in victory and unison down the two-lane highway that now linked their past and future.
Almost oblivious to the light rain that had begun falling, excited voices rang out as the parishioners lined up, military fashion, in dozens of rows across the church grounds. Police had placed orange cones down a half-mile stretch of Kempsville Road, siphoning off westbound traffic. By 7:30, everything was in place. The humid air hung heavy with a plethora of colognes as the crowd waited patiently for their leader.
The Rev. William Darryl Scott lovingly looked over his flock one final time and took his place at the head of the line. The pastor asked them to bow their heads for prayer.
``This is the day that the Lord has made,'' Scott intoned, his rich baritone echoing across the rain-slicked road. ``I will rejoice and be glad in it!''
With that the parishioners cheered and began singing a gospel tune as each row stepped off. Nine hundred people marching proudly on a well-traveled street is not hard to miss, and each passing motorist slowed for a closer look. The parishioners trudged on, ignoring the rubberneckers, increasing heat and occasional swarms of insects. Shouts of ``praise the Lord,'' and ``thank you, Jesus,'' punctuated the air.
Nothing would spoil this day. They had waited too long, and worked too hard, to let anything but nature dampen the infectious atmosphere. Yvonne Burrell, a nine-year church member, said that the new church was a ``long time coming.''
``It's worth walking for,'' said Burrell, marching in a navy suit and white stockings. ``We needed this church - we filled every corner of the old one and had to turn away people. This is a blessing.''
A few rows ahead of Burrell marched Marcellus Barnard, a lifetime parishioner for 45 years. She and fellow member Willie Mae Thomas stepped in unison as they came closer to the new church.
``This means new growth in God,'' said Barnard. ``It's being able to continue a ministry. God is good!''
Thomas, holding paper over her head, added that the new building will help draw even more members.
``This is a real growth in the ministry,'' she said. ``We walk by faith, not by sight.''
The parishioners had been marching past the Alexandria subdivision on their left, and densely wooded land to their right. Suddenly the new church came into view as they rounded the last set of towering trees and turned into the parking lot. The monstrous circular stone-and-concrete structure stood like a fortress in the middle of a cleared forest.
Although members had watched their church building go up over the last three years, they gave a collective gasp as their eyes swept over the impressive scene. The new Pleasant Grove Baptist Church is one of the largest black Baptist churches in Hampton Roads.
``Oh, thank you, Jesus,'' several said at the same time, their eyes filling with tears. ``Praise God!''
About 200 elderly, disabled and other members unable to make the walk met the marchers outside the church. They stayed in their lines and listened to their pastor give another prayer. Then Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, an invited guest, took a pair of scissors and stepped up to the church entrance. The crowd yelled ``hallelujah'' as she snipped the aqua crepe paper strung across the glass doors.
Sister Vera Cornish, the church minister of education, kept a watchful eye as parishioners slowly inched their way through the doors.
``This is only one-third of what this building will be,'' she said to astonished visitors. ``It's not what we have done but what God has brought into our lives. This is just the beginning of a great, great ministry.''
The 109-member choir and accompanying musicians entered the sacred halls first. They took their places in tiered seats behind the altar and began singing as the rest of the congregation filtered into the cavernous, 900-seat sanctuary, now filled to capacity. Booming voices bounced off the slate gray and aqua walls, proclaiming over and over ``I'm yours, Lord. Everything I'm not, everything I am.''
People clapped, stomped their feet and swayed to the beat as they prayed aloud. Pastor Scott, resplendent in a black robe with red stitching, gazed at his congregation with satisfaction.
``There is a spiritual electricity in here today,'' he said, as members waved their right hands in the air. ``God has blessed us here with this church.''
A day after the celebration, the pastor looked exhausted as he tended to administrative duties in his new office. Wearing an elegant suit and tie, as always, and sitting behind a mahogany desk, Scott reflected on Sunday morning's service.
``Yes. I'm happy but I think I'm more relieved,'' admitted Scott, his brown eyes a little puffy behind wire rim glasses. ``I'm still in shock. It's like moving into a new house. But I'm really anxious to get to the work of ministry - you can't build a $2 million church to serve the community and then ignore them.''
Scott, who is married and has two children, has been pastor at Pleasant Grove for 15 years. When he arrived there were 200 members in the congregation. Over the years it has swelled to more than 1,000. Each Sunday, members packed themselves into the old church building like sardines, which made worship a bit troublesome. Scott even put together an emergency response team comprised of doctors and nurses in the congregation, because fainting spells were fairly common.
``For years people have asked me how we fit so many people in there,'' said Scott, a Portsmouth native who has been preaching for two decades. ``We made a faith move and opened the annex doors. We held two services in the morning. But we had to turn people away and I don't like doing that.
``It's difficult to keep up with faith when you have astronomical growth,'' he added. ``In 1983, I believe the Lord gave us a vision to build a new church.''
Everything fell into place from the start. Deacon Ralph Sheppard owned 13 acres of land along Kempsville Road and sold it to the church for $10,000 an acre before he died in 1986. The church was able to find a contractor skilled in circular structures, and the parishioners dug deep in their pockets and continued to pledge more money every week. NationsBank came through with the financing for a $900,000 mortgage. Ground was broken July 5, 1992, and the church was completed exactly three years later.
``That's what you call the Lord's plan,'' Scott said, chuckling. ``I wish you could have seen this place with just a cornfield and a house.''
What is finished is only the first of three phases. Phase two will add a 500-seat balcony and knock out the walls of the administrative offices to add more pews. In phase three, the church hopes to build housing for the elderly and a commercial complex on the grounds. Scott said that he can't give a timetable for completion because they want to ``monitor the activities'' for the next several months. The old church will remain in service for Sunday school and a children's church.
Along with a brand new sanctuary, Scott is expanding the church's programs. The church will soon have a 24-hour hotline for crisis intervention and prayer. And one of Scott's goals is to move his congregation toward becoming a mission-minded church and send certain members to the African nation of Gambia to help spread the good word. But programs such as Christian education, bus ministry, singles ministry, youth Bible study and SHARE food ministry will continue to grow, he said.
Scott considers Pleasant Grove to be a spiritual, physical, mental and economical ministry - a holistic ministry.
``We now have the facility where souls can be equipped for servitude in the Lord,'' said Scott. ``If a church is going to achieve true greatness, it's not so much in being somebody as it is in helping somebody. I intend for us to be a servant church.'' MEMO: If you would like more information on Pleasant Grove Baptist Church,
call 479-1239. The church is at 2153 Kempsville Road near the Chesapeake
city line.
ILLUSTRATION: ON THE COVER
Color cover photo by Beth Bergman
Jasmine Childs, 5, of Virginia Beach, holds her father David Chiles'
hand while waiting for the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church march to
begin.
Staff photos by BETH BERGMAN
Pleasant Grove Baptist parishioners ignored a light rain and marched
down Kempsville Road to their new building, which was three years in
the making.
Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, who cut ribbon on the new
church, jokes with Robert Klass, an usher, and his sister, Gwen
Brantley.
The Pleasant Grove Baptist gospel choir - some 109 strong - lines up
for the first time in the new church.
Cassandra Jackson and her children, Nicole, 12, and Anthony, 11,
watch the march. About 200 elderly, disabled and other members
unable to make the walk met the marchers outside the new church.
Staff photos by MORT FRYMAN
The former structure that housed Pleasant Grove Baptist Church had
members packed in like sardines each Sunday. Even using the annex
room and two Sunday morning services, some members had to be turned
away.
by CNB