Home is where congregation's heart is

After an arson fire left The Connected congregation homeless for more than a year, the church home at 900 Mallory Way will once again be alive with people and music as the church hosts a "homecoming" service at 10 a.m. Sunday.

"The church was totally gutted," said Merlin Manley, former director of compassionate outreach. "I'm the utility guy right now," he said while working to get the hall in order for Sunday's service.

On Dec. 2, 2007, an arsonist is believed to have used a red butane lighter to ignite a cardboard box at the southeast corner of the stage in the church, causing about $3 million in damages. The church was also home to several charitable organizations at the time in the 10,000-square-foot building owned by The Connected Church of the Nazarene.

Sunday's celebration includes music, coffee and deli foods after the service.

"We want people to hang around after the service and take a tour of the building," Manley said. "Everything is totally new " the electrical, sprinkler system, everything. We also have a new fire alarm and video monitoring system that I can view from my home computer."

Manley said the core group of the church is stronger than before and are looking forward to returning to their old church. The church has met at the Seventh-day Adventist Church and most recently at 2814 N. Carson St.

Former pastor JJ Tuttle left the church in October to take a pastoral job in Chico, Calif. The interim pastor is John Velasquez. Tuttle happened to be in town Tuesday and stopped by to take a look and visit Manley.

"Wow," is all Tuttle could say as he walked into the hall with Manley.

"We have a pastoral search committee of nine people looking at candidates," Manley said. "We have a pastor coming in on Jan. 11 from Topeka, Kan., who is interested in the job.

"We're also looking to get our outreaches going again," he added. "We've also redesigned the building so it can serve as an emergency shelter, if needed."

The church space includes a large children's area, a nursery with one-way glass for viewing and a training area for young children. The youth program will begin shortly, also.

"We won't have the indoor skatepark, but we will come up with something else (for the youth)," Manley said.

There is also a service area for food, which Manley said can be used as a community kitchen to feed people.

"Churches in the area took up offerings to help us out," he said. "They collected about $15,000, which we chose to use to continue our mission to help people in the community rather than on the building."

The Women's Ministry is developing its plan for 2009, which will include a food pantry; the Men's Ministry holds a monthly breakfast meeting at 9 a.m. the fourth Sunday of the month at the church, and a "Recycle Sunday" program is held the first Sunday of each month.

The building also has four rooms to serve as office/classroom space and has two large video screens on each side of the stage with a power screen at the center of the wall to the rear of the stage.

"We'll use that for our free movie night the first Friday of each month beginning in February," Manley said. "It's open to whoever wants to come, with free popcorn, hot dogs and refreshments."

Manley admits he is a little apprehensive at moving back, hoping the same person who set the fire does not return to harm them again.

"Since the fire I've done much of the design of the building, working with the contractors and it is so much different than before," he said. "Absolutely I have concerns the person will come back.

"I haven't heard from the sheriff's office in weeks, but it was arson and we'll just let the investigators do their job.

"They may have burned out the building, but they set our church on fire. And the people are the church. We're on fire to help the community.

"I hope we pack the place Sunday."

- Contact Rhonda Costa at rcosta@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1223.