On the evening of Monday, January 15, a fire burned through a portion of Anchor Covenant Church in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. There was extensive damage to the building, though no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
No pastor would ever say there’s a good time to have a church fire, but according to Pastor Melissa Wall, the timing was especially ironic, given that the church had just renovated a portion of the sanctuary to accommodate its burgeoning growth.
“By leaps and bounds,” is how she described Anchor’s increase in attendance. “We’ve been seeing new people every Sunday. It’s like we picked up a surfboard and we’ve been riding the wave and having a blast in ministry.” When Wall started in her role four years ago, the church averaged between 40 and 60 congregants, she says. Now that number has risen to over 200.
The circumstances of the fire could have been a lot worse, Wall says. “We’ve talked over and over about how grateful we were that we were here at the time. Our church is in the middle of a neighborhood, and the fire could’ve spread really fast.”
Wall and a few other members of the leadership team were finishing up a meeting when one of them smelled something. “We walked in from the [recently renovated] threshold into the sanctuary, and there were just waterfalls of smoke,” Wall says. By the time they’d called 911 and exited the building, they could see flames at the front of the building.
Wall says she is really grateful for the community response, not only from her church but the community at large, especially the first responders who appeared within a few minutes. “They were incredible. They told us, ‘We’re gonna try to preserve your stained-glass windows,’ and we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, thank you, but yes, please put out the fire.’” All in all, Wall says it took 20,000 gallons of water to eliminate the fire from the sanctuary, which also created flooding damage along with the damage from fire and smoke.
The church has found a new temporary home at a nearby high school, and Wall is focused on maintaining gratitude. She is grateful for other members of the team who have gone through similar situations elsewhere.
In the immediate aftermath, however, the church will not only be soliciting donations, but will also collect snacks, beverages, and thank-you cards for the community-based first responders to make their gratitude a bit more tangible. “It just gives us an opportunity to love on people,” said Wall. “We did a drive-by prayer vigil outside—the fire fighters, ambulances, police officers, they all drove by in a long line, and we just clapped and cheered for them.”
“I don’t believe that everything happens for a reason,” said Wall, “but I do believe God can create reason out of everything that happens.”
With so many reasons to be grateful, and a plan in place to move forward, Wall and the other ministry leaders remain rooted in gratitude. Or rather, one might even say anchored.
