The elderly leaned on canes, making their way through a darkened hallway, while others clutched Bibles and cameras as they entered the Mt. Hope Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday, two days after it had been ravaged by fire.
Left without heat, lighting or much of anything else, about 50 people listened to their pastor as they sat on plastic sheets that had been laid on the pews at the South Side church.
They ignored the faint smell of smoke but couldn’t help but gape at the hole in the ceiling near the front of the sanctuary, where rain drifted in through the charred, jagged timber.
Lightning sparked the fire early Friday at the church, at 6034 S. Princeton Ave., according to the Chicago Fire Department. But that didn’t stop the determined group from returning to the gutted building for an unusual 11 a.m. service.
“I wonder what God’s plan is now,” murmured Irene Simmons, 78, as she gazed at the wreckage. She was a founding member of the church, which celebrated its 57th anniversary one week ago.
“I know he wants us to rebuild,” she said.
Church officials say they don’t know the amount of damage, and they are awaiting word from their insurance company. At first, they intended to hold services Sunday in a small administration office. But when it became evident there wasn’t enough room, they returned to the damaged church.
Many in the community consider the brown-brick building, constructed in 1902, a historical landmark. Among the ruins are a pipe organ and wall mural that includes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who led a civil rights rally at the church in 1966.
Rev. Julius L. Rawls, who joined Mt. Hope Missionary seven months ago, said he believes God was sending a message that the church should figuratively “move outside” and more widely embrace the community.
Church members were becoming too comfortable, he said, and he had been satisfied with patching up an old building that needed a larger source of revitalization.
“This is not a tragedy,” said Rawls, who plans to find out if he can hold services in neighborhood schools. “This is the next stage. What it’s going to do is drive us closer and closer to heaven.”
Rawls said he first learned of the fire while on vacation. Over the weekend, he stopped to talk to someone who drove slowly past the building. The man told Rawls he wasn’t a member but wanted to give him something. He then pressed a $100 check into the pastor’s hand.
“We do not have to beg,” Rawls said. “We do not have to put out tin cans. God is going to build this church better than ever.”
He said he was not worried about the members’ safety, because he believed from what firefighters told him that the roof wouldn’t collapse. Still, he kept most members away from the more devastated areas.
The mood was mostly joyous as members sang and talked about the need to rebuild. Later, Rawls asked the members to walk outside and thank God that no one had been hurt.
Still, Angela Lyons, 23, who lives nearby, said some things would never be the same. Her grandmother called her after midnight Thursday to tell her about the fire, so she hopped in her car and drove a few blocks to the church.
“It was all burnt-orange flames,” she said. “It was my second home. It really hurt. It’s like a piece of me is gone.”
Her grandmother, 62-year-old Helen Lyons, was among the four generations of family who attended the Sunday service.
“After I had a chance to think about it, I thought, `The Lord has something in store for us,'” Helen Lyons said. “We are coming back.”
