Fire leaves Scott City congregation without a church

Cornerstone Wesleyan Church has been a traditional gathering spot during the annual Fisher family reunion, but this year plans changed.

During Friday afternoon’s storm, the building caught fire resulting in the destruction of the structure at 210 E. Outer Road in Scott City.

“It was very hard to watch,” the Rev. Tommy Miller said. “It’s a building, but the church is in our hearts.”

Mark Fisher of Scott City, who had family in town over the weekend for the reunion, said that after World War II, his parents, Bernetta and Nevan Fisher, started the church, which was constructed in 1947.

“My parents came back after World War II and because of Wesleyan Church, they decided that if the Lord would will, that they would start a new work,” Fisher said.

He said it started in their home and grew to what he believes were 11 charter members.

“And my mother and dad held services in the home in their living room and actually my mother preached,” Fisher said.

As the congregation grew, they outgrew the living room. That’s when his father and others decided to tackle building the physical church by hand.

“They dug the footers by hand, dug the basement with shovels. They used no modern equipment, they done it all by hand,” Fisher said. “They built the pews themselves. ... It was amazing that these men got together and raised this church up.”

But he said the physical building is just a place they attend to worship together.

“I wept whenever I went down there and saw the church burning,” Fisher said. “But, you know, the realization is the people that congregate there, and love there, are the church.”

Arleen Tipsword, 90, believes herself to be the oldest member of the church.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Tipsword said. “I met my husband here in this church.”

She believes it was 1978 when she first attended the church where she would marry her husband in 1985.

“I mean, this is the most wonderful church family that we can depend on,” Tipsword said.

Miller, who has ministered at the church for nearly two years, said the fire was a difficult scene to observe.

“This saddens our heart, but we will fulfill the vision and the purpose that God has called us to,” Miller said. “We will rebuild; we will. One hundred percent we will rebuild.”

Despite no longer having a building of their own, the congregation gathered for Sunday services at Scott City School District’s Visual & Performing Arts Center/Community Safe Room.

A GoFundMe campaign, “Rebuild Cornerstone Wesleyan Church of Scott City,” has been started. On Sunday afternoon, the campaign had raised more than $2,000.

The campaign can be found at www.gofundme.com/rebuild-cornerstone-wesleyan-church-of-scott-city.

“We are leaning more toward possible lightning strike simply because the amount of energy as well as the intensity of the fire upon arrival,” Kevin Drury of the Scott City Fire Department said of the cause of the fire.

Drury said upon arrival at the fire, there were gale-force winds and a downpour of rain and, in addition, there was already heavy smoke and fire showing from the eaves of the building.

“It wasn’t like a small fire started in the corner of the roof and it just slowly grew, it just engulfed the whole roof,” Fisher said. “When we went down there, I saw it. I was in shock. ... I could see it was gonna be a total loss.”

Ten of Bernetta and Nevan Fisher’s 11 children are still living, Mark Fisher said.

“And we still have our family reunion here in the old home place that my dad built in 1964,” he said of his family.

Consistently meeting every year for the last half century, Fisher said the reunion has taken place each year since his father died of cancer in 1969. Although they also met at times before his death.

“We were all young once and now we’re getting all older,” Fisher said.

Despite not being able to hold their Saturday dinner in the church started by the family’s late matriarch and patriarch, the family still had plans to devour gallons of homemade ice cream at the annual meeting.

“So this will be 10 gallons of homemade ice cream we have eaten two days,” Fisher said with a laugh.