DATE: Friday, October 10, 1997              TAG: 9710100657

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   54 lines

FIRST BAPTIST GETS $1 MILLION TO PAY FOR CHESAPEAKE SITE

For a megachurch, a megadonation.

First Baptist Church of Norfolk on Kempsville Road, the 5,000-member colossus of the Southern Baptist Convention, has received a $1 million anonymous gift to help pay off its planned new site in Chesapeake.

``That gift, along with many others from people in our church, allowed us to pay off that property,'' said the Rev. Danny Roberts, senior associate pastor. ``We now own that free and clear.''

The donor asked not to be identified in any way, even within the congregation.

There was a story going around that the $1 million was left in the collection plate one Sunday, but Roberts dashed that legend-in-the-making. He said the check was given to church leaders in very conventional fashion.

``That certainly would have been more dramatic, wouldn't it?'' he said.

It was not a complete surprise, Roberts said: ``It was an amount that was pledged back about a year and a half ago. We had no idea when it would come in or how it would come in or in what form.''

First Baptist, which just celebrated its 192nd anniversary, is in transition on multiple levels:

The distinctive Kempsville Road sanctuary, soaring into the sky just off the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, has been offered for sale, with no takers.

A task force is still trying to figure out when the church can and should move to the new, 48-acre site in Greenbrier, between Greenbrier Mall and Interstate 64.

In June, senior pastor Robert E. Reccord was promoted to a post with the Southern Baptist Convention. The church is seeking a new pastor.

The donation, Roberts said, at least settles one issue.

``We're still deciding what our next step is,'' he said. ``I do not know what that will be. Certainly our ultimate goal has been to totally relocate out there.''

First Baptist is one of the largest churches in the area, with three worship services on Sundays. It has been a steppingstone to leadership in the SBC; both Reccord and his immediate predecessor, Ken Hemphill, moved on to posts with the convention.

The donation is a large one for Hampton Roads, but not the largest made for a charitable purpose. Several endowments have been established with the Norfolk Foundation, for instance, with beginning funds of $1 million or more. The foundation distributed $2.1 million last year.

Over the past two years, foundation director Lee Kitchin said, the estate of composer F. Ludwig Diehn has endowed a fund with more than $8 million.

It is meant primarily to support the performing arts center at Old Dominion University that bears Diehn's name. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

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