TAZEWELL, Tenn. — After a fire destroyed the Springdale Missionary Baptist Church in Claiborne County, the congregation Sunday came to worship in the centuries-old church building across the street.
The church said regular attendance before the fire was around 80 to 100 people each Sunday. Hours after the fire, the next Sunday service had 112 people. Eight days after the fire, around 140 people came to worship in the log cabin church across the street, spilling onto the porch.
The Claiborne County Sheriff believes the fire was electrical. The church is in limbo, waiting on insurance.
"We do have insurance, it's not a great big policy but we do have some," Pastor Brandon Christian said. "Obviously that's going to be our biggest challenge moving forward is financially seeing that we get it rebuilt."
The church said around three years ago they acquired the Big Spring Primitive Baptist Church across the street. Originally built in 1795 through 1796, the church said the church is older than the state of Tennessee.
For the foreseeable future, the church will hold service in the 30' by 30' log cabin. But the Pastor and the congregation say they feel the building isn't as important as the people and faith inside it.
"The building may change, but God is not," Pastor Brandon Christian said. "He's still the same. When I look out over the church I don't see green pews or carpet or white walls or a beam down the center. I see the people that I love and call my people through God."