BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Madison Street Baptist Church announced it has paid off its $6.5 million mortgage. The 2005 note was used to finance its 43,000-square-foot Family Life Center.
The congregation’s associate pastor of music and administration, Charles Warren, described the debt as an anchor around the congregation’s neck over the last 20 years.
“Every ministry we’ve done, everything we’ve tried to do,” said Warren, who has been on the church staff since 1997, “we always had to keep in mind that we had this debt. At one time, the monthly payment was $28,000. It was tough, but we were still able to do ministry. We never missed a payment or any bills that were due. Looking back, I believe that’s just by the grace of God, and God always provided when we needed it.”
Growing congregation demanded more space
Warren added that the church delayed maintenance and restricted its staff growth while paying back the loan.
He explained that when the church built the facility, weekly attendance approached 800.
“We were doing two Sunday schools and two worship services in the morning,” Warren recalled.
“We were completely out of education space, I mean, completely out. Our nursery area was underwhelming. I mean, it just wasn’t that great. And then the pastor at the time had a vision for a recreation ministry.”
The new facility contained multiple basketball courts and other recreation areas, a full-sized kitchen, and a state-of-the-art nursery and children’s ministry area.
“We really didn’t have anywhere to have any kind of church-wide gatherings as far as for fellowship or anything like that,” the minister added. “The fellowship hall at the time was woefully small for anything we tried to do. So that’s where the idea for the Life Center came about.”
Building completed, church splits
However, shortly after the congregation completed the structure, the church went through what Warren described as hard times.
“A large number of folks left,” he recalled. “I mean, I guess the only way to call it is a split. The church split.”
The senior pastor and most of the staff left. Warren stayed, and he and the rest of the congregation were left with the five-figure monthly payment.
Attendance dropped from nearly 800 to around 300.
The congregation went through interim senior pastors and permanent pastors until Richard Cason arrived in 2020, two weeks after the church reopened from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Cason recalled that his predecessor told him the debt weighed on his ministry.
“‘Hey, it’s a wonderful church,’ he told me,” Cason recalled. “He said he loved serving here, but it got to be that carrying that burden around was just cumbersome. It wore on him.”
“And so I knew that coming in,” Cason continued, “He didn’t give me the exact number, but then when I met with the search team, they gave me the number of 4.3 million, something around there, so I was taken aback by that because that was significantly larger than I had thought it was.”
The easiest church I’ve ever pastored
The Worthington Springs native said all other indications for the potential pastorate were green lights.
“You had a staff here that had been here for a long time, which is an indication of a love for the people here, not always common in ministry,” he recalled.”
“It’s the easiest church I’ve ever pastored in terms of their willingness to follow, to submit to leadership in a healthy way,” he continued. “And so, we’ve seen nothing in the last five years, but steady, healthy growth, our staff has grown, our church body has grown, and it has just been a fruitful season of ministry in these five years.”
Cason said the first turning point for the church’s debt was a large gift by a family three years ago. That contribution allowed the congregation to reamortize the loan and significantly reduce its monthly payment.
Meanwhile, the church continued to grow.
Near the end of last year, the church’s leadership believed they saw light at the end of the tunnel and decided to launch one more campaign to vanquish the debt.
“We started at the beginning of this year,” Cason said. “I think it was $1.7 million. And really, we started, even at the beginning of this year, our Wednesday night services, we went to more of a prayer service model of just really wanting to be as a church, really dependent, really seeking God’s face and help in a lot of areas, but especially in this particular area of relieving this debt, and this past Sunday we crossed the finish line.”
Warren said that despite the burden, the congregation expanded its outreach, particularly in the area of missions.
“We’re making two mission trips a year, one overseas, and one up to the New England area,” he said. “And those were the type of things that, before we were able to start seeing something happen with this debt, it was very easy to say, we’re just never going to be able to do that again. But God had different plans, so I truly believe that alleviating the debt is God’s blessing. The faithfulness of his people who, even through really tough times, kept serving, kept giving, kept worshiping, and kept loving on Jesus.”
Cason said the congregation is planning a 10 a.m. celebration service on November 23 to mark the mortgage settlement.
Saying Amen in Heaven
Cason said large gifts by several members played a role in the debt elimination, “but also, we’ve been able to see the steady, consistent generosity of the whole church. It’s not just one or two people. It has been across the board, a heart of generosity from our people to finish this campaign.”
Cason added that the church is thankful to God for the payoff but is also challenged to move forward.
“We’re just excited that we get to give Him praise and rejoice in this season and take time to do that,” he said. “But then also eager to see what He’s got for us next because we don’t think He’s done this in three years just for us to sit back and celebrate it. I mean, He’s giving us an opportunity to move forward, and so we’re going to take advantage of that as well. So, we’re looking forward to the next chapter.”
Warren said some longtime members, including himself, doubted they would ever see the debt paid off.
“The way the loan was structured for the amount and the interest, literally, every time you would look at it, you would think that it’s permanent. It is immovable. There’s nothing we can do about it except just move on, do the ministry that we can do,” said Warren, who took over the church’s administration and finance duties after the church split.
“Then I realized that when I was feeling that way,” he continued, “I was looking at it with human eyes. From a human standpoint, it didn’t look like it could happen.”
The associate pastor added that some members did not live to see the debt paid off, but he knows they are now celebrating with the rest of the congregation.
He mentioned founding member David Lawson, who served as church treasurer in the 1980s and 1990s and died in 2022.
‘I got a text just a little while ago from his grandson,” stated Warren. “He said that his Memaw told him that she heard Brother David saying Amen in heaven.”
