Tony Martin
Editor
New Salem Church, Iuka, was in need of an additional building. The Chilton Baptist Builders from Chilton County, Alabama, sprang to the task in June.
“The Chilton Baptist Builders began about 40 years ago when a group did a trip to Nicaragua on a building mission trip,” said Ray Burks, Tishomingo Associational Mission Strategist. “After that first build, they decided they could build locally, at home. It started out with two or three churches from Chilton County and now has grown. We had folks from Alaska, Texas, the Carolinas, Missouri, Alabama, and Georgia, I think.”
Seven states, 43 different churches, and 121 people participated.
Burks made contact with Tommy Bishop who is the leader with the Chilton ministry. “I learned that this group was looking for a place to work,” Burks said. “I think maybe they’d had a cancellation and needed somewhere to go. I contacted Ron [Norville, pastor of New Salem Church] and gave him their contact information.”
“I called and told Tommy that I’m not even sure what y’all do,” Norville said. “That started a conversation that lasted about an hour and a half, maybe an hour and 45 minutes. I’ve since laughed and told him, ‘Looking back, it was an interrogation. He asked me all sorts of things. One question that stuck out to me was ‘If someone walks down the aisle of your church and you’ve never seen or met them before, and they want to join the church that morning, what are you going to do?’”
Bishop was wanting to know about the church’s involvement in missions, both internationally and locally.
“I can’t make a decision,” Bishop said. “I have to talk to the rest of the crew.”
“I told him that we voted as a church in 2009 to build the new building,” Norville said. “The vote was 100% in favor of building. I started preaching on Ephesians 3:20-21, that God was able to do exceedingly, abundantly above what we could imagine. That was kind of our theme verse.”
The church decided to move forward the first of November. The Chilton Baptist Builders began working the Thursday before Father’s Day.
The Friday of that week the group started laying initial groundwork and Bishop laid out the walls Saturday morning.
“They brought their own crew to cook,” Norville said. “They furnish all the labor, they bring their own food, and they pay for it. They put themselves up in hotels, and some of them brought campers. All the church had to do was provide the materials.”
Bishop said, “Y’all can be as much a part of the building as you want to be.”
“He was amazed at our church coming out to help,” Norville said. “He said that most places we don’t have that many come out and actually work with us.”
There “wasn’t a stick of wood” on the property Saturday morning, Norville said. By Thursday afternoon the building was fully sheetrocked. The metal shell was already in place.
“This is a 80-by-150-foot building,” Norville said. “80-by-80 of it is two floors. Classrooms are on the second floor. The building was completely wired, completely sheetrocked, and completely walled.”
Burks was able to acquire some lumber for the project.
“Tommy said that he knew a guy, a lumber broker, down in South Alabama,” Burks said. “He told me that he felt like he could get lumber cheaper through him. Tommy said he was going to send an order for what they needed, and he came back to me with a quote.”
As it so happened, the broker told Bishop that he felt like the Lord was in the project, and that he wanted to knock $20,000 off the price of the lumber he provided.
“We believe God told us that we needed to build,” Norville said. “We’ve had good, steady growth at the church, even during Covid.
“I sat down and just tried to figure out the man hours on this building,” Norville said. “I figured there were 121 people working 12 hours a day Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I’m figuring these folks saved us $600,000 – 700,000.”
Norville shared a story about Mr. Lackey.
“Mr. Lackey drove himself down from Chilton County,” Norville said. “He had his 98th birthday. On day one we were having a prayer time and Mr. Lackey followed us out and fell. I checked him out and asked all sorts of questions. He hadn’t eaten, so we got some food in him. His blood pressure was better than mine, and his pulse rate was like 68.
“He would sweep with a push broom every day,” Norville continued. “He’d work a while, then sit down and rest a little bit. He picked up paper and was always working. We had his 98th birthday party while he was there.”
