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“The church is just a building, but our church body is still together and whole.”

That’s what longtime members of First Presbyterian Church of Atmore said more than 12 hours after a fire destroyed the well-known building late Saturday night.

Around mid morning on Sunday, between 40-45 members of FPC gathered for an hour of worship under the canopy of a blue sky.

First United Methodist Church of Atmore provided folding chairs and a sound system for the service, and churchgoers from the area attended.

“This is a hard time, but your presence means a lot,” FPC Interim Pastor Jim Dietz said.

Longtime Member Chuck Dettling said the church isn’t the just the building, it’s the people.

“The building is where we meet,” Dettling said. “We’re going to put it back with God’s help.”

Dettling said the original part of the building by the street (Horner Street) where the main sanctuary is, was built in 1920.

“That got destroyed mid 1990s by a tornado when a tree hit the building,” he said. “We had to come up with a plan, and at that time, we put an addition onto it and redid it.”
Dettling said while the building may be gone, his memories of the church will never go away.

“Some of my kids were baptized here,” he said. “My daughter (Courtney Sirmon) was married in this building. I’ve had some dear friends pass away, and we’ve had a lot of funeral services here.”

When asked if a rebuild campaign is in the works, Dettling said on Sunday the church hasn’t gotten to that point.

“We expect insurance people to come in a few days to make an assessment,” Dettling said. “We had to get the state fire marshal. We are 95 percent sure it was a lightning strike. One set of neighbors said they saw a bolt of lightning and then a flame.”

Dale Ash, who has been a member of FPC for some 20 years, said she first saw the building on Sunday morning.

“I hadn’t seen it, and it was very emotional,” Ash said. “It is emotional when you spend every Wednesday night for prayer, and on Sundays. Then, the special occasions and weddings we’ve had there.”

Ash said Sunday afternoon she couldn’t help but think of Hattie Maxwell and Ralph and Juanita Smith Sr., FPC cornerstone members.

Ash said the church closed in the early 1950s, and Maxwell and Smith were responsible for its reopening.

Ash said some of the furnishings were still original to the church, including two antique chairs and light fixtures.

“The stained glass windows were placed in memory of people of the church,” she said.

Ash said Smith requested funds be given to the church for a memorial prayer garden. She added that the church was going to start the garden on March 28.

“We had just had the church pressure washed Thursday,” she said. “The church is just a building, but our church body is still together and whole.

“We’re taking this as an opportunity for renewal and growth,” she said.

Ash said the community support has been welcoming. Local pastors and city leaders reached out offering their premises for worship services.

Ash said Sen. Katie Britt reached out to her Sunday morning, and said she’s praying for the church community.

Ralph and Juanita Smith Sr.’s grandson, Tray, who lives with his wife, Stephanie, in Washington, D.C., is an Atmore native and went to FPC until he graduated from high school. He graduated from Escambia County High School in 2009.

“Even after that, when I’d come home from college, and now when I come home, I attended regularly,” Tray said in a telephone interview.

Tray said he’ll always remember celebrating the lives of both of his grandparents at the church.

“We prayed for the victims of 9/11 in the church, and just growing up, I had a ton of friends there, and we had a very active youth group,” he said, adding they had between 15-20 youth at one time.

Tray said the church will always make trips home special.

“We’ve just been very blessed to have the sweetest, most faithful church community,” he said. “And it made my grandparents so proud to have been part of it. It makes every trip home more special. And, we couldn’t be praying more for the members of Atmore First Presbyterian Church.”