Trading Spaces
Oak Ridge District church transforms old school into new community center
By Annette Bender
CLINTON, Tenn. - Pay attention because this is kind of complicated.
In 1996, Heiskell United Methodist Church traded spaces with Heiskell Volunteer Fire Department.
The two groups literally swapped properties without monetary exchange. The fire department needed the choice corner lot occupied by the church. Meanwhile, the church's tiny building was deteriorating and the congregation had a dream to begin a community center.
So Heiskell UMC moved into the fire department. Which used to be a school.
Soon, the fire department took the old church building, tore it down, and built a brand-spanking new fire department on the lot.
Which still left the church with an old school.
But the story has a happy ending, as you might have guessed. For eight years, members at the little church spent every Saturday transforming the old school building (which used to be a fire department) into a spacious, sparkling new community center. With only 30 in worship attendance, Heiskell UMC saw a need for "The Heiskell Gathering Place" in a rural area where parks and recreation centers were nonexistent.
Today, the congregation coexists in a renovated building with the community center they created. Exercise classes meet there on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Bluegrass jam sessions happen on Monday night. A new walking track - built with $11,400 from an anonymous donor, a former student of the old school - was completed this month.
How did the little Oak Ridge District church come so far?
"I think God's blessing is on this place," says the Rev. Pat Bishop, Heiskell's pastor. "These people love each other, and they had a vision for this."
It was "traumatic" for the congregation, established in 1912, to give up their old church building and move into a dirty old facility that had recently been damaged by a fire, Bishop says. But they did, and now they're ecstatic that the church has a means by which to open their doors to the community. Three months after the community center opened, about 30 nonparishioners attend the bluegrass sessions and 12 attend exercise classes.
The transformation came with years of sacrifice. When Jenny Colson originally saw the old building her church had acquired, her first thoughts weren't positive.
"The walls were covered in that black, black sooty dirt that gets under your fingernails," says the church pianist. Even though other members saw potential in the old building - with 3 1/2 acres of property vs. æ acre at the old lot - "I didn't see it," Colson admits.
Yet, Colson's family and others joined in the Saturday ritual of construction work provided by the men, lunches provided by the women. For eight years.
For Ron Milligan, church historian and one of the construction leaders, the project was a labor of love. Although he now lives in Andersonville, Milligan makes regular 30-minute trips to serve and attend his home church - located in the school he attended as a child. He remembers eating in the cafeteria, which is now the church fellowship hall. When he worships, he sits in the place where he sat as a student, looking out the same window where the trees have greatly matured in the past 50 years.
At least two newcomers have already been drawn into the church through the community center. Doug Davis and his wife had attended different churches over the years, but not regularly.
When Davis learned of the church's plans to begin a community center, "something clicked," he says. Davis not only became vice chair of the community center's board, but also a regular participant at worship and Bible study.
"I don't know if you can describe that," says Davis, explaining why he felt led to become part of the church. "It's a feeling of the Lord saying, 'Come on in.'"
Now that most work on the building is complete - transforming it into a homey place with sun-lit windows and quilts on the bathroom walls - the congregation is focusing on developing the property.
A survey of 2,900 residents earlier this year showed that the community really wanted a walking track. They're not only getting the track, but the community center board has received $1,500 from Knox Co. Parks and Recreation and $1,000 from St. Mary's Medical Center to build a softball field and playground. Organizers also have plans for after-school care and senior-citizen group meetings, Bishop says.
"We're so excited about this," says the pastor, a former nurse who entered the ministry in 1997.
"These people worked hard toward a goal of opening their doors to the community. And they're doing it. It's amazing how God does stuff."
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