4 minute read
Pointing to Heaven and to Christ
The Steeple Story
The story behind the storm-damaged steeple
The fierce storm that ravaged through the Midwest on August 10 had one strong and surprising image—the College Church steeple. Images like the one pictured here were the main feature on the local news broadcasts that night and in the print and web editions of local and national newspapers. National news services picked up the images as well. In the days that followed, we began to hear from congregants and family members across the country reporting that they had seen the damage in their own news outlets.
The day after the storm, repair companies took the steeple down, covered the damaged roof for short-term protection, and the work began on roof repairs to the Sanctuary building. College Church volunteers showed up ready to work. They cleared trees and worked together to clean up the debris.
While it would be easy to think that the steeple has always been atop the original building since it was constructed, long-time church members and the church archives tell a different story.
Ray Smith, a church member for almost 65 years, recalls a slice of College Church history. “In the 1930s a steeple was approved by College Church, but the money apparently was diverted to aid Depression era needy. In 1979, my wife’s mother, Mrs. Charles Blanchard (Lillian) Weaver, spearheaded the initiative for a fund drive to buy a steeple in honor of Dr. Evan Welsh, a much-loved College Church pastor and retired chaplain at Wheaton College.” It was a fitting honor since Evan Welsh was the pastor in the 1930s when the steeple was first approved.
Ed VanDerMolen chaired the building/expansion committee back in the late 1970s and early 80s when the steeple came up again. “Tom Kay was the one who recommended us to consider it again,” Ed recalled, and then added, “The original church was built in 1933, but the congregation chose not to spend the money on a steeple at that time, but to do it at a later time. And no one ever got around to it.”
Until the spring of 1979 when a down payment was made to Campbellsville Steeples (now called Campbellsville Industries) in Campbellsville, Kentucky, to design and build the steeple for College Church. According to its website, Campbellsville Industries are the “Steeple People” and pioneered the prefabricated church steeple more than 50 years ago.
Ed and another College Church regular Jim Joy pieced all the connection pieces together. “My first thought when I saw the pictures is that we didn’t tighten the bolts enough, but the base of the steeple was intact. I hung black felt over each window so it would look black. I often wondered if anyone would ever see that felt again.” Ed comments, “but sure enough when I went to the demolition there it was,” Ed comments.
“The steeple was to be installed on a Friday with the dedication service on Saturday. I got a call Thursday night that the truck delivering the steeple broke down and it would not be installed on Friday. The steeple arrived and was installed on Monday. Evan Welsh good naturedly joked, ‘It is so appropriate that something that is associated with me is late, since that has been a characteristic of my life.’”
Ed remembers that the steeple was installed without the spire at the very top. A week later, the spire arrived, and a crane lifted a worker who sat in a basket with the spire to the top of the steeple where the final piece was slid into place.
On October 14, 1979, a week after Pastor Kent Hughes was installed as pastor, the spire was dedicated. “I just arrived at College Church when they put up the steeple,” Kent recalls. “I remember a sense of the moment. There had been decades where this church had no steeple and, here I was, the new pastor, and I got to celebrate with them. I was thrilled to be a part of it.”
The May-June 1979 church newsletter describe College Church’s witness to the world as “one of the Word and the dedicated Christian lives of our members. Our witness has also been in loving outreach with the gospel to the far-off corners of the world.
When it comes to ministry of the Word, not much had changed in those 50 odd years since the spire was first dedicated.
The question that brewed after August’s storm was whether to replace the steeple and what the cost would be. There’s good news from the Board of Deacons: the steeple is fully insured and will not cost College Church a penny to replace. And Campbellsville Industries is already hard at work.
Another piece of good news—the spire itself wasn't damaged and will have its place atop the new steeple.
