Rebuilt Orme church a miracle on the mountain

The Orme Mountain Church of God building that will be dedicated on South Pittsburg Mountain on Sunday is nothing short of a miracle, according to pastor Charles Oaks.

How else would a 10-member congregation build a $200,000 sanctuary in seven months and have it be debt free?

"It was God," said Oaks, 70, a retired pastor who took over the struggling church in 2007, only to see it burn to the ground in February. "I give him all the glory."

The congregation now has not only an attractive brick building in which to worship but also an adjacent renovated parsonage which can be used for Sunday school rooms and fellowship gatherings as the church grows.

"It looks like a brand new house," said Oaks, who lives in South Pittsburg.

Just two years ago, the Orme Mountain congregation had spent more than $15,000 to renovate its old sanctuary, which was built in 1952.

"It needed painting, carpeting, the pews needed recovering," Oaks said. "You name it, it needed it."

He mentioned the needs to the congregation of five on New Year's Eve 2007 but said he did not ask for money.

However, Oaks said, "money just started coming in. God began to speak to people throughout Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. God worked miraculously."

On Feb. 13 of this year, though, the pastor said he thought all the money had gone for naught when the church burned due to what proved to be an electrical wiring problem.

"I had gone up that morning," Oaks said, "and done some straightening. The choir wall was blank, so I hung some wrought iron plaques and some greenery. I thought my wife and the other women would love them. I went from room to room and praised the Lord for everything. Twelve hours later, there was nothing."

It wasn't long, he said, before he felt God was telling him the money for the renovation hadn't been wasted - that if God was taking away the old, he would give them something new.

"Money started coming in the next day," Oaks said. "With that and the insurance, we had enough to do everything that needed to be done inside and outside the church. Except the sound system, and I've got a loud voice."

While the new church was being built, the congregation worshiped first in the pastor's home and then in the parsonage, which received about $10,000 worth of renovation.

Oaks, his next-door neighbor and two other men did a good bit of the work, painting inside and out, putting siding on the rear of the house, installing carpeting and mounting kitchen cabinets.

The next-door neighbor, Jack Steele, 75. a carpenter by trade who later served as vice president of Dixie Builders, was project manager for the new building.

"I put all the loose ends together," he said. "I was the one to be sure the money covered what was bought."

Retailers gave them good prices, church officials said, and other businesses discounted some labor and services.

Savings came in "almost every area you can speak of," said Steele, who was a member at South Pittsburg Church of God when Oaks was pastor there. "It was built at far less than the value" of the building.

Sue Giles, the church clerk and a member for more than 50 years, said people have been generous.

"Brother Oaks is a great man - full of faith," she said. "I told him, it seems like the money just stretches."

Although the attendance at Orme Mountain Church of God has doubled since the pastor came, he feels God may be suggesting that God can do as effective a work in a small congregation as in a large congregation.

"That's what God will do for people who trust," Oaks said.

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