CLAREMORE — The only
items that survived the
fire at Christ Presbyterian
Church on July 20 were a set of
communion trays and a baptism
chalice.
“Could you dig down through
(the rubble) and find one or two
more little things? Maybe, but it’s
not worth it,” said church pastor
Dave Schwenk while taking the
items out of a clear plastic box
on Sunday. “That may sound horrible,
but it isn’t.”
Schwenk led about 25 members
of the nearly 40-member congregation
in prayer during a service
at the Seventh-Day Adventist
Church on Sunday morning, the
group’s first such gathering since
the blaze destroyed their home of
worship, a century-old building
they began using more than 20
years ago.
The church offered its facility
to the newly displaced community
for at least the next four weeks
while the Presbyterian church members search for a more permanent replacement, Schwenk said.
“You can’t hardly say
enough,” he said about the
offers of help coming from
the Claremore community
and other churches around
the world. “People have been
wonderful.”
Although the church’s
worship service was in an
unfamiliar sanctuary, the
congregation’s closeness never
diminished throughout,
church elder Neil Thielen
said.
“I want us to find a place
we’re comfortable in and just
worship. We’re just like a
family,” Thielen said. “It’s all
about worship. It’s not about
buildings.”
Thielen, a church member
for the past 23 years, had seen
the former building undergo
extensive renovations, which
the congregation completed
gradually because of its small
size and limited budget.
“We had put a new roof
on. We had actually finished
putting a wood ceiling in and
wainscoting,” he said. “We
even had a couple of heat and
air units sitting there in boxes
still. We were getting ready to
redo the HVAC in the sanctuary.”
Fellow church members
Eldon and Crystal Riley
agreed with Thielen, saying
the people they worship with
are what make their group
special, regardless of the
building they use for prayer.
“Church isn’t where you
gather on Sunday morning;
it’s who you gather with,” Eldon
Riley said. “We’re with
the same people.”
The couple’s daughter,
Tegan Riley, 10, approached
the pastor and hugged him
silently the first time she saw
him following the blaze, Eldon
Riley said.
The small act earned her
a mention during Schwenk’s
sermon Sunday.
“She wasn’t worried about
‘my church building.’ She was
worried about how Pastor
Dave was feeling,” he said. “A
building he’d been preaching
at for 20 years burned down.
She was more worried about
him than her.”
Schwenk said the fire
helped him realize how many
people in the area had connections
to the church’s former
home, including the local
Methodist Church, which
used the building before the
Presbyterian church rented
and ultimately purchased it
from them five years ago.
The loss of the facility is a
significant loss for the city of
Claremore to overcome, and
he thanked many in the community,
including area media,
for their kindness and assistance
during the past week.
“The east end of that building
had been there 100-plus
years,” he said. “People drive
by and slow down and stick
their cameras out the window
or come and stand and
look ... they really care about
(the church and building.)”
Thielen said while the
group will have to shuffle between
borrowed facilities for
the foreseeable future, the
congregation’s trust in God’s
plan for them has never been
stronger.
Samantha Vicent 918-581-8321
samantha.vicent@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Enduring spirit
Claremore
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