On 30th January 2000 our Church started with a core group of six meeting for services in Elderslie Village Halls. During one of those services Pastor Arthur looked out of the window behind him and made a bold statement “See the derelict church building behind me, God is going to GIVE it to us!” We thought, how are we going to buy that? Well, sit back and enjoy this wonderful true story of what happened next…
Pastor Arthur made enquiries and discovered it was in the process of being sold by Renfrewshire Council to a group of property developers who were going to turn the old Church of Scotland building into flats. Pastor Arthur spoke to the council and said “That can’t be, because God has told me he is giving us that building”… their eventual response “well if there are any changes I will let you know.” Sure enough the sale fell through and the property was advertised at the low asking price of £35,000, due to the very poor condition of the building. Pastor Arthur was excited with the hope of knowing God was in this project and appointed Lawyers to make an official offer to the council.
It seemed to take forever, but Pastor Arthur was confident it was ours and he was right, they accepted our offer of TEN POUNDS! God told Pastor Arthur he would GIVE us the building. Isn’t God AMAZING?
This was just the start of a lot of hard work carried out by Pastor Arthur and a few loyal members and friends… but God was in this project. The building was totally stripped, walls knocked down, floors lifted, the main hall had plasterboard which was soaking wet so that came off quite easily but the stonework underneath stunned us all, the decision was made there and then that the utmost care would be used to bring those dead stones back to life, the job of working with the stonework in itself took over 3 months to devotedly clean and then repoint. It is now an amazing feature!
In the sanctuary of the main hall, we saved what we could of the stained glass to use in the new windows, and received a 50% discount on the mahogany wood panelling. There were no toilets, so plumbing and facilities were installed, as well as a large kitchen and cafe area with lovely leather sofas donated by Reids furniture, tables and curtains from Ikea, and the place looked beautiful!
By now we had £1,000 in the bank, no heating, and a quote of £13,000 to supply and install. The second company to quote had a look around and said “I don’t know why I’m saying this but I will GIVE you a new heating system and my men will put it in for you!” We needed carpeting so Pastor Arthur headed off to Stoddard Carpets, hopeful that they would help. He was right, Stoddard’s were delighted to GIVE us £10,000 worth of carpet!
