Rebuilding Lives

As we are renovating the church facility, we also want to continue to assist people in finding new hope and direction for their life. The man pictured was the first person to be baptized as a result of the The Solid Rock's outreach. Pastor Cruz baptized him at our sister church, Christian Life Center of Minerva, because we have not yet finished the remodeling of our sanctuary and installed our own. This is the reason we are pouring time, energy, and finances into fixing up a building. We want to see lives changed by the love of God. Our purpose statement is Strength for Today, Hope for Tomorrow, and Purpose for Life. Those are the things we want to offer our community. The times we live in are unstable and chaotic, but we want to offer a solid rock to those who would like something to hold on to in the storm. That's what "The Dream" project is really all about.

Rebuilding the Walls

Nehemiah was a Jewish prophet who was living in a foreign land. He held an important place among the King's servants. Then he received news from Jeruselem. The walls of the city, it's protection and stability, were in shambles. The people were scattered about and had no leader to rally them. Nehemiah was troubled to the point that the King noticed. Once Nehemiah explained his auguish over his beloved city, the King granted him anything he needed to go back to Jeruselem and rebuild the walls.

It wasn't an easy process. There were those who mocked and made plans against Israel to attack them and tear down what they accomplished. Yet Nehemiah rallied the people and set everyone to work. In one hand they held tools, and in the other they held weapons. They rebuilt the walls of Jeruselem together.

At the beginning of the year Pastor Cruz taught a series called "Rebuilding the Walls". We took the life of Nehemiah and extracted the valuable wisdom in his story, because we, too, are rebuilding walls in a city where they have been broken down. On the outside we are literally constructing and fixing actual walls with drywall, caulk, and paint, but we're rebuilding walls in a spiritual way too.

The church is not the building; it's the people. We want to build a stable foundation in prayer, the Bible, and in community. These are things that have been missing for a while and as the church we're rebuilding them so that we can offer a place of hope to others.

One of the first things we had to do was tear out the old fixtures, walls, pipes, etc. in order to prepare for the remodeling. The men especially enjoyed this process. Tearing out the bathrooms was dirty, exhausting work, but they worked tirelessly at it. They had to haul all of the debris out to the 40 yard dumpster in the back of the church. We filled it up pretty quick! It was the first of many too!

Birth of "The Dream" project

In January 2009, the church officially appointed Tony Cruz as their pastor. He and his family had been assisting Elder Oval Eller in the work in Alliance for over a year. Once they began to feel that this was where God wanted them to be they began to make plans to move to Alliance. Once on site, it was only a matter of time before God would meld the Cruz family and The Solid Rock church together.

Now this once forgotten, broken down church found itself with a vision, a purpose, and a leader. We are ready to tear down mountains (or bathrooms, if need be) and move forward toward the dream that we have.

When Pastor Cruz began a series "Dreams Really Do Come True" during Sunday morning worship, the dream began to take shape as we studied the lives of dreamers in the Bible and learned that we could dream once again. Things we once thought impossible were no longer just wishful thinking but God began to inspire us to reach for the things we longed for.

The Dream project is more far reaching than a simple blog post can explain. On the outside it seems like just another church building project. We are remodeling the existing structure. We have plans drawn up, and can see it in our minds. It's going to be beautiful. We've already started, as you'll see in later posts, but it's not just about drywall, tile, and paint. It isn't just making a comfortable, contemporary setting. It's about a new beginning. It's a church that everyone thought had died out and that soon there would be a "For Sale" sign out front. Then God dipped His finger in the stagnant water and stirred the pool. Suddenly miracles are available.

There are over 24,000 people living in Alliance. The biggest part of our dream is to give every single one of them the chance to know who Jesus is and what He can do in their life.

Here are some more "before" pictures.

How it all began

On a day full of promise and running over with the grace of God, Bishop F. Joe Ellis received a call from a couple in Alliance, OH. They were struggling to keep the doors of a church open and were looking for help. The previous pastor had been gone about a year and a half and most of the members had left as time went by and a new pastor was not found. Now only a small handful remained. The building had been deteriorating for a long time with no one making repairs or updating the facilities. It was nearing the end of 2007.
Bishop Ellis is the overseer of The Link Network, a group of churches who operate under the leadership of The Link, a church in Canton, OH. A few meetings later, The Solid Rock was officially incorporated into the network and help began to arrive. Elder Oval Eller became the Interim Pastor of the church, to lead the work until a permanent pastor could be found.
Minister Tony Cruz and his family began to come regularly to the church to help, commuting from Canton. Soon the Cruz family began to be more involved and feel the call of God to the city of Alliance. High on the list of needs was the condition of the building. It was infested with spiders, filled with outdated items, the water supply was unusable, the roof had holes where you could see outside, and the front doors had been bricked over and covered with metal.
The Dream began to germinate in the hearts of the people as God began to work. Through the generosity of multiple sources, things began to turn around. A new commercial roof was donated, including labor. We were able to hook up to the city water system. We exterminated our creepy crawly friends. We filled up dumpsters with trash and debris. A fresh wind was blowing.
Take a look at some of our "before" pictures.