Denominations cooperate to renovate shared church

By Lynn Hotaling

During the past year, members, former members and friends of East LaPorte Methodist and Lumberton Baptist Church have combined fund-raisers and donations to replace several clear windows with stained glass, refurbish pews and add new carpet in the 80-year-old sanctuary. Additional improvements include a water cooler, bathroom renovations and a new door for the fellowship hall.

"The stained-glass window is the answer to prayer and a product of (the congregation's) faith," said the Rev. Tina Evans, the church's Methodist minister.

When the window was ordered last spring, church members thought they would have to borrow money to cover its $10,500 cost, but by the time window arrived eight months later, the congregation had raised the entire amount, said Oleta Zachary.

Zachary's late husband, Kit, was a lifelong member of the church, which was built in 1922 by Blackwood Lumber Co.

The hard work and cooperative spirit that went into the fund-raising effort is typical of the tiny church, which has about 20 members, said Evans.

"I feel they're all one congregation," Evans said of the two denominations that share the church. "They work closely together and have for years - it's a very loving congregation.

"It makes my heart leap with joy to have such Christian unity - they don't let denomination barriers stand in their way. It's a wonderful thing," Evans said.

Methodists at the East LaPorte church have community roots that predate the formation of Jackson County, according to longtime member Blanche Wike. Known as Poverty Hill Methodist Church, the first building stood near where the church stands today in what was then Haywood County.

After the 1851 formation of Jackson from Haywood and Macon counties, Methodist districts were reorganized and the church at East LaPorte joined other area churches - Webster, Wesleyanna and Johns Creek - in the Webster Charge. East LaPorte remains part of the Webster Charge and shares a pastor with Webster, Johns Creek and Speedwell Methodist churches.

East LaPorte's Methodist services are held on the second and fourth Sundays each month.

During their more than 150-year history, East LaPorte's Methodists have used the names Poverty Hill, Long's Chapel and Wike's School and Church, Wike said.

East LaPorte Baptists organized sometime during the 1930s, Wike said, and began meeting in the church on the first and third Sundays. Most of the church's early Baptists worked at Blackwood, too, Wike said, so it was natural for the Baptist congregation to use the church on the Sundays the Methodists did not have services.

The Baptists organized as Lumberton Baptist Church, though East LaPorte has traditionally been used to refer to both denominations meeting at the church. A picture published in "The History of Jackson County" is captioned "East LaPorte Baptist and Methodist Church."

As time passed, members of both denominations began attending the services of the other group until they blended to form more-or-less one congregation, Wike said.

"All these years we have worked as one church," Wike said. "We don't think of ourselves as two denominations, only as one."

The windows installed recently were specially made to match stained glass added behind the pulpit during the 1960s. Those windows honor Wike's parents, Jim and Florence Hooper Potts, and longtime church members Davis and Susie Potts Zachary. Wike and Ann Gunnels raised money for those windows by selling vanilla and fruitcakes, Wike said.

East LaPorte is believed to be the only church in Jackson County where two denominations still share one building, though it was not uncommon in earlier days. Methodists and Baptists in both Webster and Speedwell once shared worship space.

The congregation uses both Methodist and Baptist hymnals and used Methodist Sunday school literature for years, though the Sunday school teacher, Fannie Mae Hooper, was a Baptist, Zachary said.

"We know who we are, but if you were a visitor you wouldn't know," Zachary said.

Through the years, the church has had at least three couples where one spouse was a Methodist and the other a Baptist, Wike said.

"They attended the same church all their married lives," she said.

Church attendance at East LaPorte has declined somewhat from the 100-plus congregations that filled the pews during Blackwood Lumber's pre-World War II heyday, Wike said, and currently averages between 15 and 20.

The Rev. Al Cauley, the church's Baptist pastor, shares Evans's views about the positive spirit and cooperation at East LaPorte.

"It's a very harmonious situation," Cauley said. "The church does great - it's just one family. The same group attends every Sunday - it's one congregation."

East LaPorte's successful renovation project happened because, in spite of its small numbers, the congregation "put its faith in what God's going to do and has done," Evans said.

"I know the tendency is to look more at the things that divide than at the things that unite," Evans said. "At this church, the members look more at the things that unite."

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