Pat Ingram | May 6, 2025
In this post, Pat Ingram reflects on our transition to our current building twenty years ago. We are grateful for the hard work of the Facility Planning Team (co-chaired by Pat Ingram and Dave Fischer) who orchestrated this move to our new home.
As we commissioned our Transition Team last Sunday, I thought back about 20 years – to two major transitions that our CBC congregation was completing. One was similar to what we’re doing now; the other was very different.
In January 2004, Gerard Howell (now our pastor emeritus) announced his retirement. A pastor search committee was elected and in April 2005, Mark Johnson was called to be our new senior minister. He had spoken from the pulpit at 1644 Nicholasville Road just a couple of Sundays before, and in conjunction with the worship committee he helped lead “A Sacred Journey” – including two special services on May 8 and May 15.
Those two Sundays were the culmination of a much longer transition that brought us to 110 Wilson Downing from our church home of over 50 years at 1644 Nicholasville Road.
In late 2001, CBC voted to sell its 1644 Nicholasville Road property to Central Baptist Hospital and to purchase this site at the corner of Nicholasville Road and Wilson Downing. In early 2002, a Vision and Ministry Team was established to facilitate planning by researching ministry possibilities presented by the property and desired by the congregation. And that summer, a Facility Planning Team was named to address planning and construction for the new site and building.
Throughout 2003, CBC celebrated its 50th anniversary with the theme “Enriched by Heritage – Encouraged by Hope.” On the afternoon of November 16, a ceremonial groundbreaking was held for the new building.
As I guess is to be expected with transitions, there were lots of decisions to be made – as well as some bumps along the way. The Facility Planning Team spent many hours discussing how best to house our activities and ministries including the childcare program, what to keep and reuse from the old building (the E.M. Skinner pipe organ, the stained glass now in the Fellowship Hall, the pews and other sanctuary furniture), and how we could make the facility energy efficient (installation of geothermal heating and cooling). As it turned out, a major “bump along the way” was an unfavorable construction climate that resulted in project bids coming in well over budget. But with some adjustments to both the plans and funding, work proceeded through 2004 and into spring 2005.
By May 2005, we had a new pastor and a new building – and were ready to celebrate!
“A Moving Experience” on Sunday, May 8, was a split service. The congregation gathered in the 1644 Nicholasville Road sanctuary to begin the service with the communion bread being served. Everyone then moved to their cars – decorated with balloons – for the drive to the new facility, where the communion cup was served and the service concluded.
The Building Dedication on Sunday, May 15 featured a message by Dr. Dan Aleshire, a former CBC interim pastor, and the choir performing a choral work by Earlene Rentz (wife of former CBC minister Bill Turner) that had been commissioned for the dedication.
Now, after 20 years in this location and this facility, we remember those who made the move but are no longer with us, and we celebrate those who have joined us during these years. We also think of the changes – the days we couldn’t gather here but still functioned as church during the pandemic, the closing of our childcare ministry a few years ago, and now the opportunity to offer an expanded children’s ministry and to serve as the home of the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky. And we can look forward to the new ways we will find to minister and serve from here in the coming days and years.
(Be sure to check out the photos and other memorabilia from the 2002-2005 building process and dedication that are on display in the church vestibule.)
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On May 10, 2025, Charles Midkiff said:
Thank you Pat for the information and such a thoughtful remembrance.