The eighties found My Jane and I immersed in ministry at Zwingli United Church of Christ in East Berlin, Pennsylvania. We were both heavily engaged in the life of a very enthusiastic congregation. The church building was bursting at the seams with activity. Three older adult classes met in the sanctuary for Sunday School. The ‘Almost Adult’ Class meet in our living room and dining room and the Youth met in the back room on the second floor of our parsonage. The ‘Almost Adults’ was an eclectic collection of mostly twenty and thirty somethings who did not sit still too long. (At a church picnic.) They were noisy, fun loving and eager to serve. (Alexa; Play ‘We are Family by Sister Sledge)
Additionally, several moms came to My Jane wanting help to create something for their preschoolers to do during the winter months. A group of them met and formed Mother’s Morning Out, a volunteer run, activity based, session for 3 & 4-year olds one morning a week. Toward the end of the school year My Jane circulated a survey asking if families would be willing to pay for such activities 2 or 3 times a week. It came back a unanimous yes. From there a board made of 3, church members, 3 mothers (or fathers), and three staff was formed to guide the process. The only one in that group with a degree in Education was married to me and was hired as the director.
And so, Zwingli Christian School was born. To everyone’s surprise, except maybe My Jane, the school was an immediate success meeting the needs of many young families in and around East Berlin. The school used all the available space in the building when it was in session. The congregation was literally tripping over itself.
We began the discussion as a congregation concerning our space issue with a simple proposal. The living room and dining room were divided by partial walls and a pocket door. The adults where craning their necks to see each other around the walls during class time. The simple fix would be to remove the two wall sections and make the front rooms one. The building committee willingly brought this idea to the congregation. We were surprised by the response of one of our precious senior citizens. Anna was the kitchen boss and a beloved member of the congregation. It was not possible to be angry with her. She objected with this statement, “What if the next pastor doesn’t like no walls in the front room.” Well, as the current pastor, I didn’t think much of this argument but her question was enough to stop the forward movement on that idea. Something else had to be done, however. The congregation decided to build an addition onto the present church building. I still am amazed that a couple hundred-dollar remodel was turned into a four hundred-thousand-dollar undertaking. God sure works in mysterious ways. Maybe some of those young mothers thought four classes of children meeting in the corners of the same space just wasn’t good enough. Maybe their desires added impetuous to the movement for an addition.
Whatever forces were at work the congregation was taking on a huge task. I wanted to wait to begin construction until we had some funding in place. The official board decided we needed to start now and expect the funding to follow. In an effort to keep the costs down the members volunteered to do much of the work themselves. I told you this was a highly active and enthusiastic congregation.
The project began by removing the brick from the back wall of the fellowship hall (where the children’s classrooms were located). The brick was removed, and excavation began under the fellowship hall. At one point the entire section of the building was being held in place by 4X4’ posts. During this part of the project no one was allowed into the fellowship hall or kitchen so as not to bring the entire building down.
Our contractor was a church member who was donating his time to the project. George had been through a rough patch in his life a couple years before. He and I spent many hours together in those dark days and he seemed to have come through into the light. One day after the project was completed, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘This project saved my life.’ Wow!
The contractor’s crew built forms under the fellowship hall in preparation for an evening of back breaking volunteer wheelbarrow pushing. The crew hauled concrete from a truck, up the ramp and dumped it into the forms. We couldn’t stand up once we got to the top of the ramp, so we were a bunch of ‘hunched backs of Zwingli’ building basement walls. “Esmeralda!” That was physically the hardest part of the entire project. (Alexa: Play ‘Chain Gang’ by Sam Cooke)
When the fellowship hall was safely supported the excavation began for the rest of the addition. The hole was dug, and the forms for footers were built in preparation of the arrival of another cement truck. The night before the cement was to arrive, we had a rainstorm. That night I looked out the window once and saw Noah checking the ski. It was really raining. The next morning George was at the door to inform me that the curb from the bank parking lot next door to the church had fallen onto the footers and crushed them. What could we do? I got on the phone and in less than half an hour had twelve men committed to doing whatever was necessary to be prepared for the cement trucks arrival. (With George in the rain.) We cleared out the curbing and rebuilt the footer before the truck arrived and poured in the rain. It must have worked because the building is still standing today.
Cement block walls were built, (Me painting sealer on the walls. Behind me is where the bank parking lot curb had been.) joists were laid, and the sub floor was nailed down before the next ‘work party’ gathered to put up walls and fasten trusses in place for the roof. That was a fun day for everyone. The kitchen crew led by Anna kept us fed and we had a grand time watching our efforts turn into the frame of a new building. The members did plumbing, painted, helped lay bricks, nailed on shingles and ran electrical wiring. We were part of a beautiful community mission.
The people of Zwingli were an amazing dedicated group that worked together, prayed together and played together filled with a spirit of joy and hope. That group of people were what I believe ‘church’ is meant to be. And my Jane and I have only feelings of love and admiration for who that congregation came to be.
See you next time.