Building a House of Worship
Dan Bowles retired 12 years ago, but doesn’t spend his free time sipping piña coladas and playing shuffleboard. The former computer systems analyst from Houghton Lake, Mich., spends it building churches. For the past 11 days, he’s been building one in Bismarck.
Bowles is a member of Men and Women of Action. MWOA consists of volunteers from Churches of God throughout the U.S. The volunteers travel all over the country and the world building houses of worship for other members of their faith. This is Bowles’ fourth such trip already this year.
When 17 MWOA volunteers congregated in Bismarck, the only physical manifestation of Covenant Community Church was a concrete slab just off Burleigh Avenue. By Friday—their final day on the project—they were putting on the siding. The church will give the roughly 40 members of the Church of God in Bismarck a place of their own to meet.
Until recently, the Church of God had a membership but not a building. Five years ago, the problem was the opposite—a building with no one to fill it. There was a church on 19th Street owned by the denomination, which has existed in Bismarck for nearly 50 years, said Pastor Mike Hance. But by a few years ago it stood nearly empty most Sundays. That’s when the church sent in Hance to try to restart the denomination in Bismarck.
“They told me there was a building, and I might have one family, if that,” said Hance, who came with his wife and three daughters from Missouri.
So Hance got a job at a treatment facility for children, and with the rest of his time set out to recruit new members. Eventually, he was successful enough that his flock needed a new pasture. They put the 19th St. building up for sale, expecting it to take two years to find a buyer. When it sold in three months, they were delighted but suddenly homeless.
They’ve been holding services at Shiloh Christian School since then. They are grateful for the facility, Hance said, but eager to have a place of their own. Similarly, Hance is grateful for the new church they will soon finish, but eager to outgrow.
“I figure we’ll fill this place in a year or two, then start on an addition,” Hance said.
Men and Women of Action started in 1983 with six members, Hance said. Today the group numbers in the thousands and has built churches in dozens of countries. Members pay all their own expenses for the trips, unless the local congregation provides food and housing, as Bismarck’s did.
“This is a ministry,” said Bowles. “These churches couldn’t afford to build [without volunteers]. This probably saved them $20,000 or more.”
Norman Dryman is the foreman of the MWOA crew that has come to Bismarck. He’s well qualified for the job—he and his wife, Lisa, own a construction company back home in Clayton, Ga. They don’t mind staying in the line of work on their “vacation,” though.
“I enjoy it,” Dryman said in a thick southern accent. “You get to see different places, meet new people.”
In their 10 years with MWOA, the Drymans have met new people in Russia, South America, Africa, and all over the United States.
One need not have a wealth of experience in construction to contribute to MWOA, though. Donna Young, a retired accountant also from Georgia, has stayed busy in Bismarck cooking for the crew. The Youngs, too, have traveled widely, building churches.
“Seeing a building go up like this, it’s great,” she said.
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© 2008 Church of God World Missions
