Fire Burns Its Way into
Meade Station Church of God’s
100-Year-Old History
Lora Parsons
The Ashland Beacon
I’ve spent this summer going through pictures of the last 100 years’ that catalog the history of the Meade Station Church of God, to create anniversary banners for our sanctuary – a pictorial documentary to hang on the walls. The earliest pictures in these albums are dated 1924. They detail not only my church family history but part of my biological family history as well. My great-grandfather along with his wife, Erie Ann (Whitaker) Sorrell, and Sophia Thompson, who everyone lovingly called “Mama Thompson” helped start our church when Papa Sorrell moved his family to Boyd from Bath County. He would work as the Track Foreman at Meade Station’s C & O Railway. When they got here, they found no Church of God close enough to attend.
Wildwood Church of God (then First Church of God, Ashland) was only a few miles down the road, but that literally meant in a different time zone, according to a newspaper article in one of these albums. Papa Sorrell had successfully started two other churches in Bath County – Polksville and Midland, KY – both still alive today – so he knew how to remedy the problem that he’d encountered. He approached the school superintendent, and the one-room-school house became the first home to our church, beginning first with Sunday school meetings, since there was no pastor to lead a full service. These meetings established the earliest roots of Meade Station Church of God.
When the county schools consolidated in 1925, the building was given to the church for dedicated services. It was heated with a cast iron pot belly stove in the center of the room that kept the air warm even though the cracks in the floor left everyone’s feet cold. The stove also didn’t give off enough light to see, so Aladdin lamps and kerosene lanterns were used. In this way, fire was an important part of the church’s existence, making it possible to gather year-round. But fire would prove to be a destructive recurring theme, burning its way into church history repeatedly over the years.
The first instance of such occurred after meeting in the one-room schoolhouse for nearly 20 years. A fire destroyed that building. Having been given the building after the consolidation, it was up to the congregation to figure out how to move forward. They began meeting in homes and saving money to construct a new space. In 1942, a building fund for a new location was established by Pastor Asa Layne.
While many contributed to meeting the building fund goal, maybe none were as personally sacrificial as Sophia “Mama” Thompson, who gave up the several hundred dollars she’d earned selling chicken eggs. Intent on buying living room furniture, her sacrifice was one of many that helped to make that new building a reality. “The old tile building” as it is known today was built two years later and sat near where the church is located. That building would eventually be renovated to include classroom spaces and indoor toilets and would serve the congregation there for the next 24 years.
Construction of the red brick building on the corner of US 60 and Marsh Hill, which is the current home to Living Waters Worship Center, began in 1968. The original structure only included the sanctuary and basement-level classrooms and was nearing completion when fire once again broke out. The lighting and furnishings were all that were needed for services to be held in the new sanctuary when it was destroyed by fire. Though likely devastated to be so close to worshipping in a new space, the people of the church simply continued to work. The building was again completed after cleaning up the damage from the fire, and services were held there in that sanctuary for the next 44 years.
Adding the bell tower and gymnasium came about in 1977 as the congregation’s needs were expanding. Having two distinct spaces – the sanctuary and the gym – would enable a variety of events, not just worship services, to be held over the years. As the church space diversified, so did the ministry opportunities it could explore.
It would take almost another 30 years before fire would reappear in the church’s history. This would happen in 1992 when a few teens were seen leaving the property just after setting fire to a dumpster in the back of the gym. The bell tower, stairwell, and classroom spaces above the gym received extensive damage, but the overall structure was left unharmed. After interior restoration and clean up, this fire wouldn’t even cause enough damage to cancel service the following week. Once again, the church would simply carry on. It would continue to carry on through another construction phase 20 years later, resulting in the church’s current seat, not far from its first.
Completed in 2012, this building houses a multipurpose sanctuary space, large classrooms with plenty of room for growth, and modern conveniences like a large kitchen, restroom facilities with showers, a library, offices, and the technology to support multiple ministries and outreach programs. The facility itself ensures that future generations will have a safe, clean, relevant space to learn and grow. The only fires to speak of in recent years have been the two mortgage-burning services to celebrate that the financial security of Meade Station Church of God matches the spiritual growth happening there.
The milestone of 100 years is worth celebrating even without the fiery past that has faced our church. Fire would be the enemy to the building on several occasions, but there has always been a fire within the people of the congregation that would not be extinguished. When walls fell, they were rebuilt. When smoke damaged surfaces and spaces, it was cleared out and cleaned up. Fire may have threatened our structures repeatedly, but the fire within to serve our God has always prevailed. Adversity hasn’t been a stranger, but God has always been stronger. Hardship has only visited; God’s presence permanently resides.
Closing and packing away these albums has been a reminder of just how fortunate we are to be 100 years down the road from where we started. It’s because of the people whose faces decorate these albums’ pages. God has richly blessed our congregation, and He has proven time and again to be a flame that will not be extinguished.
Join us for our homecoming celebration weekend as we celebrate our 100th year at the Meade Station Church of God, which is located at 10255 Ceder Hill Drive, Ashland Kentucky 41102. Saturday, September 14, we will be having a special singing by “The Browders,” at 5 p.m. There will be a special dinner following immediately after the concert. Then on Sunday, September 15, we will be having our special service at 10:30 a.m. that will honor the church’s heritage. We hope to see you there as we celebrate the many blessings that God has given us over the years. For more information you can call the church office at 606.928.5263.
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