Out of the ashes: Nearly four years after fire, BridgePoint Church is back home

Jan. 17—TEMPERANCE — As they think back to the day they watched their church alight with flames, congregants and staff recall that it felt surreal. Even as they began making calls — still onsite — to arrange a venue for the next day's service, it was difficult to square with what was happening in front of them.

"Is this really happening?" BridgePoint Church Lead Pastor Craig Killinen recalled thinking. He was watching via FaceTime; his family was out of town the weekend of March 4, 2017. "Because this is a bad joke if it's not really happening."

For Student Ministries Pastor Matt Hafer — who even as firefighters worked the scene was assuring his charges that they were the church, not the now-smoldering facility; all that was about to change was their address — it took "about a year to sink in."

"It took a while to sink in that it actually happened," he said.

Pastor Killinen, Pastor Hafer and the rest of their community are now settling into a newly rebuilt church on the same site in Temperance, Mich., which, following some pandemic-related delays, finally opened its doors to weekend worshippers just before Christmas.

It's exciting, they said. But it's similarly going to take them a while to adjust.

"We're home," Abbey Anteau said. She took in the fire nearly four years ago as a congregant, wondering what would happen with the church preschool where her son was enrolled.

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"I think that's really big," she said, "but it hasn't really sunk in."

BridgePoint Church is a well-known and long-standing community just over the state line, counting an estimated membership between 350 and 400. Established more than 175 years ago as First Baptist Church, they've been gathering off Lewis Avenue since 1969.

Pastor Killinen said fire investigators were never able to pinpoint the cause of the devastating fire that burned the church essentially to its foundation nearly four years ago. In its wake, it left a grieving community to begin to grapple with a slew of questions about their future.

Some were answered quickly.

BridgePoint Church came together for an emotional service the following day at Bedford High School. Pastor Killinen, who with his family had rushed home from Philadelphia that Saturday, assured the shaken congregation that they would "continue to be a church wherever we are."

The congregation continued a routine of setting up and tearing down their worship space in the high school for several months afterward, then shifted to Monroe Road Elementary School, and later began renting a vacated church facility on Summerfield Road. Their preschool relocated to Smith Road Elementary School.

Other questions called for deeper consideration: Would they rebuild? Would they move?

"That's played a part in it taking so long, because we did have some options," Pastor Killinen said. But ultimately the congregation voted overwhelmingly to rebuild on the same site, a move that the pastor said seemed to make sense, too.

"I just felt like God wasn't done using our church in this location yet," Pastor Killinen said.

The blueprint they selected intentionally kept the construction costs almost entirely under the insurance payout; they owe nothing on the new church, which the pastor said has a smaller but also more efficient layout than their previous facility.

At its heart is an auditorium with seating for up to 350, as well as equipment to continue broadcasting services well after the pandemic-related need for this virtual outlet has dissolved. The auditorium is flanked by a preschool wing, as well as administrative offices, children's ministry rooms, a commercial kitchen and a spacious lobby that's well suited for less formal chitchat and fellowship among congregants.

Under a second phase of construction, for which the pastor said they've not yet established a timeline, they hope to regain some of the amenities they lost in the fire, like a gymnasium.

As he reflected on the "whirlwind" path that brought the congregation to finally open the doors last month — and that was even before a pandemic added additional complications — he credited the congregation as "some of the most resilient people that I've ever been around."

"It has been overwhelming at times, when we rely on ourselves and our own power and strength. But God has seen us through every step of the way," Pastor Killinen said. "He has provided everything that we've needed. He's kept us together, because I think churches could probably be broken up a whole lot easier than the things we've been through."

In addition to delaying the opening beyond its anticipated date this summer, the pandemic has inevitably tempered some of the would-have-been enthusiasm for the new space. While Pastor Killinen said that much of the congregation is comfortable worshipping in-person, their seats conscientiously spaced out in the auditorium, they know there are members who are choosing to remain virtually connected for now.

So it's not the blowout grand opening celebration that Pastor Hafer said he and others were anticipating as recently as a year ago. Ms. Anteau, who since the fire has joined the staff as office manager, likened it to opening their doors "with caution tape."

BridgePoint Church just restarted its youth ministries in the new facility this week.

It's one more way reality is beginning to sink in that they're finally home in their new space.

First Published January 17, 2021, 7:30am

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