For LifeWay Church members, patience leads to their new place of worship
Published 12:00 am Thursday, September 5, 2019
LifeWay Church, located at 5075 U.S. Highway 601, has been holding services in this new building since June. The congregation will have an open house Saturday. Mark Wineka/Salisbury Post
The sanctuary features rows of comfortable chairs for the church's contemporary services. Mark Wineka/Salisbury Post
At both the old and new church locations, congregants have enjoyed gathering before services in the coffee shop, which has a link to the new kitchen. Mark Wineka/Salisbury Post
One of Pastor Danny Dillard's favorite Bible passages is written on the reception desk outside the sanctuary. Mark Wineka/Salisbury Post
Mark Wineka/Salisbury Post Parents who drop their children off at the pre-school or nursery receive a pager, much like a restaurant pager, that can signal them during the Sunday service if they are needed back at the nursery.
The meeting room for youth at LifeWay Church. Mark Wineka/Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — Back in June, when members of LifeWay Church held the first service in their new building, Pastor Danny Dillard felt compelled to stay back in his office as long as possible.
Even though he knew a large crowd was filling the sanctuary, he wanted to wait. Dillard looked up at the office clock, and the time was 7 minutes to 11 a.m.
Dillard saw a lot of symbolism in that. It had been seven years since the congregation bought the piece of land where the new church now stands.
And “seven” surely is a number signifying completeness in God’s eyes.
“It was a surreal moment,” Dillard says of the feeling he and his wife, Bebee, experienced. “We were just patient for that period of time.”
After seven years, LifeWay Church has a new 10,000-square-foot facility at 5075 U.S. 601. Much of the past year has been spent finishing the structure’s interior, and the expansive parking lot out front wasn’t paved until last week.
Through hard work, generosity and perseverance, the congregation faces no debt on its building or 14.5-acre site. Members raised roughly $1 million toward the project, which includes a wooded, half-mile walking trail in back.
LifeWay Church is having an open house for the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Visitors are welcome to tour the facility, enjoy free food and maybe even take a train ride.
Not many churches have a train, but LifeWay runs a small train for children of the church once a month and during church festivals. It will be running Saturday, too.
On Sunday, LifeWay will have a thanksgiving celebration and dedication service for its building.
Before moving to this spot, LifeWay Church members worshiped at the former Wink’s S&W Fish Camp at 7621 Old Mocksville Road. Another church now occupies that location.
Danny and Bebee Dillard founded their church as Agape Faith Christian Center in April 2002, and they had 36 people at their initial service at Ellis Park’s community center.
That fledgling church soon moved to the former offices of Fuchs on West Innes Street, and the name eventually changed to LifeWay, which had been at the old fish camp since 2008.
The church likes to say it offers a place “where you can experience a new way of life loving God, loving people and serving both.”
The reception desk in the new lobby outside the sanctuary also includes one of Danny Dillard’s favorite Bible passages from 2 Corinthians. It says, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone. A new life has begun.”
From the moment the LifeWay congregation bought this land on U.S. 601, Dillard says he sensed the Lord was helping him and the members realize their ultimate goal.
Today, LifeWay has about 150 members, and Sunday services average 160 to 180 people. The new sanctuary, with its high-backed, cushiony seats, has room for 225 people and a stage for its contemporary services, which are held at 11 a.m. Sundays and 7 p.m. Wednesdays.
Long halls are part of the building’s interior design on each side of the center sanctuary.
Off one hall are two church offices, a conference/prayer room, a kitchen and coffee shop adjoining the kitchen.
Down the other hall are four classrooms — one each for youth, elementary kids, preschoolers and a nursery.
The nursery and preschool rooms are connected, and there’s a sign-up desk for parents who drop their children off there before attending the Sunday service.
The parents also receive pagers — much like restaurant pagers that signal to customers when their tables are ready. If their pagers go off while they are attending the service, the parents know they are needed back at the nursery or preschool.
Dillard says it means teachers can stay in the room and not have to take a whole class down the hall to summon one parent.
“Some of the best ideas come out of a problem,” Dillard says. The children’s classrooms each have a minimum of two teachers.
A lot of labor and materials were donated for the new church. Many of the furnishings came from the old church.
Jim Erick donated, for example, the materials for the kitchen cabinets and custom made them himself.
Nicole Cox, the Dillards’ daughter-in-law, handled all the interior signage. Danny Dillard was one of the primary people in the congregation who painted walls and stained concrete floors.
“God kept sending the people and the finances,” he says. “It’s really been amazing.”
The new church seems to have been attracting prospective members. Dillard says every Sunday since that first service in June, he has seen two or three new couples.
One last thing needs to be accomplished. The entrance drive from U.S. 601 still has to be paved, and that will carry about a $27,000 price tag.
Danny and Bebee Dillard’s ministry team includes Shelia Frost, the “connections” pastor; Ed Kivett, the worship pastor; Mike Russell, who oversees the “Helps” ministry; and Kathy Russell, who assists with youth programs.
To Danny Dillard, this whole endeavor and what it has meant to members of LifeWay is closest to what God told him to do when he entered the ministry.
“It felt like this was where I was supposed to be,” he says.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or mark.wineka@salisburypost.com.
