In just under seven months, a fire did what Red Bank United Methodist Church might never have accomplished on its own, according to the Rev. Jeff Lambert, pastor.
Not only did the June 10 fire, which caused more than $2 million in damage, allow the church to replace and update all the fire torched, he said, but it also unified the congregation.
“It brought us together,” Lambert said, citing Romans 8:28 (“… all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose”). “It was great to see everybody working together.”
The fire emanated from a lightning strike on the roof near the front outer wall of the church’s Christian Activity Center on the eastern side of the nearly block-long complex.
By the time the 14 fire departments who responded had left the scene after nine hours, fire, smoke and water damaged had permeated some 38,000 square feet of the 47,000-square-foot building.