March 22, 2000

PASTOR GLENN CLARK (top left) joins Randy Pamykal in riveting siding onto the building's frame while Clyde Mitchell and Donald Glenn work below.

Church continues do-it-yourself building pattern
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___PLAINVIEW--It is more than just the construction of a new church plant that has Pastor Glenn Clark flying high these days. He's often 20 feet off the ground.
___Members of Bethel Baptist Church in Plainview are constructing their own facility, leaning on the construction skills of Clark and a few other members.
___The church has a history of constructing its own buildings. When its first structure went up in the late 1940s, men of the church built it. When the church's current sanctuary was built in the early 1950s, men in the

A CRANE lifts beams for the frame of the sanctuary.

congregation again answered the call. They also built the education space added in 1970, which connected the two buildings.
___So when the church found itself growing but landlocked, with no place for more people or parking, members found a new location and men in the church are again doing the construction.
___"Our church is not everybody's church," Clark said. "We're pretty much a body of believers whom God has given the ability to do for ourselves."
___By using pre-fabricated metal materials rather than the traditional wood, the congregation will save more than $150,000, Clark said. Overall, construction of a traditional building with a traditional contractor would cost between $1 million and $1.5 million, he said. The church hopes to complete this building for about $700,000. It will include a combination sanctuary/fellowship hall, a kitchen, parlor, education space for 250 people, offices and a pastor's study.
___The construction crew varies from day to day, but 20 to 25 people have been involved, with an average of less of than 10 present on any one day.
___The plans and materials make the building easy to construct, Clark said.
___"With the experience of several key people, we've been able to oversee the work of other people and say, 'Here, screw this together.' It's like an erector set you played with as a kid, but on a much larger scale," he explained.
___More of the congregation is expected to help soon. "Once we get it weathered in, we'll have a lot more folks who can help with the interior work, like painting," Clark said.
___The church hopes to complete the 17,526-square-foot structure before Thanksgiving, and so far there has been only one setback to the schedule Even that setback had its positive aspect, though, Clark said.
___"We had just put up the walls for the sanctuary and hadn't put the trusses on top yet when we had a snowstorm come through with 70- to 80-mile-per-hour downdrafts, and it blew our walls down. People in the community would ask us, 'What are you going to do now.' Well, we put them back up and our community has been allowed to see that persistence in us."
___The church will be the farthest west of any Southern Baptist church in Plainview and will sit in a prime location. That will be great when the building is complete, but for now it has created a bit of a problem.
___"We're out here on Interstate 27, and at times we've been a traffic hazard. When we're putting up the walls or putting on the trusses, people want to stop and look," Clark explained. "We just pray, 'Lord, let the people pull off the road and stop if they want to watch.'"
___Many have stopped to watch. The high school brought a bus full of building trades students to watch the building go up. Churches throughout West Texas have sent visitors to see the building and determine if such a project would meet their needs.
___Even better, some of the people who have seen the building constructed have been curious enough to come to the church's current facility on Sunday mornings.
___When the new building is complete, the church's existing facilities will become the property of Iglesia Central Bautista, a Hispanic mission of Bethel.
___With so much going on, it's easy to understand if Clark has a little trouble keeping his feet on the ground.
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