After people filed in and filled the pews at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church, ushers rushed up and down the aisles looking for open seating to pack in as many congregants as possible.
The Oct. 19 worship service was one of thanksgiving. After four years of hard decisions, fundraising and accommodating construction, the church building’s $18 million renovation project, titled the Renew Campaign, had finally been completed.
“My son-in-law texted a photograph to Merrile and I,” John Stroud, a member of the church, said to the congregation. “It was a picture of our 18-month-old grandson standing in the church courtyard. And I don’t know what was going through his little mind, but he had his chest all puffed out. He was all by himself, it was a beautiful night. When I saw that picture, I texted it to several of my buddies and said, ‘This is what the Renew Campaign was all about: A new generation in a restored space.'”
The campaign was launched after revelations the building had sustained significant water damage over the years, and a later space and usage audit showed the space the church was inhabiting was not sufficient to meet the needs of its ministries. The exterior renovation work alone cost $9.9 million, after installing a new slate roof, removing all the capstones and buttress caps and replacing all the deteriorated mortar between the rocks throughout the entire building, said Brian Salter, the lead pastor of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church.
“We were honestly probably 15 to 20 years late on some of these things,” Salter said via phone. “Thankfully, we got to it before it was really catastrophic.”