BELLEVIEW, Mo. – Belleview Baptist Church lost its building in a fire Dec. 9.
“It’s probably a total loss,” Bob Curtis, director of missions for the Mineral Area Baptist Association, said. “They’re in a holding pattern, waiting on insurance.”
Church members Clifton and Brenda Sohn, who have a music ministry in the church, said the fire began between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. Monday night.
Although it will likely be weeks before both a fire marshal’s report and an insurance assessment are complete, early indications are the fire may have been electrical in nature.
“They think it might have been electrical in the bell tower,” Sohn said. The building is destroyed – the auditorium, the entryway, the basement, the bell tower. It’s a total loss.”
Two rooms had water and smoke damage, and there was ceiling damage as firefighters tore into the upper areas to make sure there was no fire.
Despite the devastating loss of the building for the members, Sohn said they plan to keep holding services.
“We’re a small church family. We average 10 on Sunday mornings,” Sohn said. “But we’ll get together and meet and discuss options. We’ve been faithful keeping the doors open even after COVID. God’s got a plan for us. The community needs the church to see God’s people keeping the church open and ministering to the area.”
“Everything we do is a seed planted,” Sohn added. “God gives the increase.”
The church has been without a pastor for more than two years, yet they continue having Sunday morning services and regular business meetings.
“We’re just doing what we believe Jesus would want us to do,” Sohn said.
Curtis said several churches have reached out to him to see how they could help the Belleview congregation. In a Facebook post Dec. 10, the Mineral Area Baptist Association called Missouri Baptists to pray for the congregation.
This story originally appeared in The Pathway.
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