Venerable Conway church goes under the knife

CONWAY -- George Jenkins has a lifetime of memories in the 1910 sanctuary at Conway's First United Methodist Church, and he's not in the least bothered the congregation is temporarily back there while the main sanctuary is being renovated.

"I was baptized there," he said of the earlier sanctuary where Sunday services temporarily are being conducted. "I joined the church there. I was married there."

The main sanctuary, built in 1962, was painted and upgraded in the 1980s, Jenkins said, but what it is going through now is much more than an upgrade.

A new oak floor will replace the red carpet, molding will be added to some of the 20-foot columns at the front and back of the sanctuary, new sound and sprinkler systems will be installed, a new bathroom added in the vestibule and a new entrance for choir members to enter their seating area behind the pulpit through the main room rather than an adjoining hallway.

The work in the sanctuary, while major, is not all the renovations at the church, which dates to the early part of the 19th century. Major work is also going in the adjoining commons area, a two-story building connected to the sanctuary by a couple of wide hallways.

One of those hallways will change dramatically with the addition of an elevator and ramp that will ease the way for all members to get to all parts of the church.

The $1.7 million tab for the work, said the Rev. Mac Kinnett, church pastor, "is going to push us and stretch us."

"But," he added, "this church has a long history of stepping up when it's needed."

Kinnett and Phillip Edwards, the church's facilities manager, said they've heard a few people who wonder about such a major undertaking during a bad economy. But Edwards said the project, which should be finished in January, will provide work for 50 to 60 people, including subcontractors, about four of them full time.

"It's really nice for the church to be able to provide employment at this time in the construction industry," Kinnett said.

He said the work in the main sanctuary has a side benefit to the congregation as well.

The earlier sanctuary where services have moved, now called the Fellowship Hall, has a different seating configuration than the main sanctuary, and members are meeting others they didn't know as they all settle into the new arrangement. Those among the 900-member church who attend Sunday services had fallen into a routine of sitting in the same seats week after week in the main sanctuary.

Being in the 1910 sanctuary temporarily will also add flavor to a planned centennial celebration of that structure in October, Kinnett said.

He said the pulpit in that sanctuary is noticeably lower than in the main sanctuary, and he finds he can't read his sermons as he could in the main sanctuary. He talks more from memory now, and while he may forget to include some things he planned to, he likes the new way and will continue after the move back into the big room.

Jenkins, 75, was chairman of a master plan committee that mapped out the current renovations and more in the future.

"We looked into the future to see what we need to do for the next 50 years," he said.

The church plans to renovate the second floor and to construct a new addition later, he said.

As for the renovated sanctuary, Jenkins said he won't miss anything from the old once the new is completed.

"Every now and then in a lifetime," he said, "you have to upgrade."