TROY, Mich. – The yellow tape and debris were still strewn everywhere. A stark reminder of the fire that destroyed the 68-year-old Troy Church of Christ 72 hours earlier.
But that didn’t deter the congregation from coming together to share in the spirit of fellowship and a collective purpose to stand in their faith
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“Everybody has just pulled together in a way that’s really overwhelming with kindness, so it’s been great,” Manuel Florescu, the pastor at Troy Church of Christ, said on Sunday. “In Christ, we are brought from life to life. There’s just a little door called death in between, and we’re praying that’s what’s this is today.”
Florescu said the first sign of trouble was around 2:50am on Thursday. Emergency crews responded to the church around 3:15 a.m.
After entering the building initially, the roof reportedly suffered a partial collapse, which required firefighters to try and put the fire out from the outside.
No one was inside the building at the time and no firefighters were injured. Florescu made it clear on Thursday that today’s service was happening, even if it had to be held outdoors.
“The church is the People,” Patrick Oja, a current church elder and 38-year-member of the church, said on Thursday. “It’s just a building and Buildings can be rebuilt, and things can be replaced. It’s the people who’ve been part of this community for more than 70 years.”
Oja reiterated the point on Sunday.
“There have been a lot of tears, so you can say the church is not a building; it’s the people – which is absolutely correct,” he said. “But there’s still loss that people feel.”
The Birdwell sisters, Kerrie and Lauren, are lifelong members of the church. They held back tears reflecting on what the church means to them.
“She woke me up and told me, ‘The church is on fire,’ and I thought I was dreaming,” Lauren Birdwell, 64, said. “It’s very sad”
“We’ve gone through a lot of loss over the last three months,” Kerrie Birdwell, 59, said. “This just feels like one more.”
What the future holds for this church is still up in the air. Florescu said that the ATF investigation into what caused this fire is still ongoing.
When asked about the possible costs that could be incurred from this, he said he was “terrified.” But the one thing that’s for certain: as long as they have this congregation, this church will always about the people and not the building.
“For us, this is almost like a funeral, almost like a memorial,” Florescu said. “We’re burying some part of us as we look at this building that’s behind us and we are looking forward to a rebirth.”