BEAUMONT, Texas — Almost a week after the Central City Baptist Church went up in flames, church and community members gathered to worship next to the remains of their building.
Decades of history went up in smoke last Monday when the building, which originally opened in the 1960s, burned.
But lifelong members of the church aren’t giving up and met to worship Sunday morning in a tent next to the burned out remains of their church building.
The church had closed during the pandemic, but members had plans of reopening before the fire happened.
Church leaders say the building is insured and will be rebuilt.
At a Sunday night prayer meeting nearly a week later, it wasn't about brick walls and wooden pews, it was about a community coming together and continuing to worship because a church is more than just a building.
If the building is destroyed the church can continue.
"I originally started here in 1949,” said Richard Hernandez, “When there was a tent and we went from a tent to what was the wood building right here where we're standing. It burned in 59."
Six decades later another fire moved the congregation, back under a tent. But it didn't stop them from coming together to pray.
"It would have been very easy to quit, go to a place with a newer facility, fewer distractions,” said Dr. Jim Turnbo, executive director of the Golden Triangle Baptist network. “But we wanted our community, our team to be encouraged, focused and move forward."
While they worshiped across the street, remnants of the disaster hung over them in the background.
"I was married in this church,” Judy Gibbs told 12News. “My children grew up in this church."
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While the church isn't defined by the building, the building still held many memories.
"There's a lot of precious memories, a lot of ‘em and a lot of souls that were saved here," said Hernandez.
For Hernandez and Gibbs, who have each been church members for more than 50 years, it's another chapter, though a painful one, in the church's rich history.
“We got our memories. They can't take it away from us,” says Gibbs, “And who knows we may just rebuild us a little old church and the Lord's in control, so I don't really know."
What they do know, is the church will continue.
“The church building is gone right now,” said Dr. Turnbo, “but the church is the people and that fellowship is still here.”
Once they settle with the insurance, they plan to demolish the burned church and re-build it from scratch continuing the church's legacy in the same place it started more than 6 decades ago according to Dr. Turnbo.