THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603010208
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Life has changed for good at Great Neck Baptist church. For nearly 30 years members moved the pews out of the way to set tables for Wednesday night dinners and moved them back again before the evening was done.
That was the routine week after week for members of the little cinder block church with a combination sanctuary and social hall.
All of that changed recently for the church, which formed in 1965 as a mission of Spurgeon Memorial Baptist Church in Norfolk. Last Sunday Great Neck's 400 members and more than 100 guests dedicated their new 9,800-square-foot sanctuary and classrooms.
The new sanctuary seats 466 in comfort beneath 20 polished brass chandeliers that hang from massive wooden beams in the 40-foot-tall ceiling. The tones of a brand new organ filled the air last Sunday. The instrument was donated by area businessman Charlie Cashman in memory of his late wife, Lou. Behind the raised choir area and altar the spacious new baptismal pool has already been used. One week before the dedication nine new souls were immersed there.
The final price tag of the new facilities and furnishings will be more than $1 million. Last April when ground was broken for the new building the estimate was $850,000. During construction church members reconsidered their original decision not to complete the second floor of the facility and so their complete dream was realized.
Church members raised more than $300,000 themselves in just over two years. The remainder of the cost was made from the sale of bonds, which sold out in one week, said church public relations person, Bernice Cheeley.
``It's a miracle that a small congregation can accomplish this. It has to be of God,'' said the Rev. Bill L. Kincaid. Kincaid helped kick off the church's march toward constructing the expanded facilities. When he became pastor in December 1993, the church had been meeting in its 2,500-square-foot facility for more than 25 years. In the fall of the next year the church kicked off its fund-raising efforts.
Amazingly, Kincaid noted, the church's giving to missions and other benevolences actually increased during the years of amassing the building fund.
A commemorative bookmark handed out at the opening bore the inscription, ``Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.'' Psalm 127. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARK YOUNG
Last Sunday, members and guests of Great Neck Baptist Church at 1020
General Jackson Drive dedicated this new 9,800-foot sanctuary.
``It's a miracle that a small congregation can accomplish this. It
has to be of God,'' the Rev. Bill L. Kincaid said of the 400-member
church
by CNB