Owensboro Church Gifted With $3.1 Million Property To Call Home

Buena Vista Baptist Church in Owensboro recently handed over the keys to their sweet building and gifted another local church with a brand-new place to call home.

The story is one of faith, perserverance and a very big God.  It is also shows the ultimate sacrifice from a very loving congregation of followers wanting to be the best stewards of what the Lord faithfully provided them for years.

Angel here and I am proud to say I am a member of Matthewstable here in Owensboro.  I'd love to tell you exactly how many members strong we are but new people walk in our doors weekly so we never know LOL.

You know you can read tons of stories of faith in the bible but to see one play out in real life is something of true and awesome miracle.  I remember it like it was yesterday the first time I attended Matthewstable in September 2018.  We had left our regular church and in transition to find a new church home.  They were meeting in the Munday Senior Center in the gym.  I could go on and on in my own words but I'd love to share with you the testimony of the faithful men who believed God would provide.

This is the story of Matthewstable in Owensboro;

Pastor Roger Chilton:  I would say on May 7, 2017 God called two families to step out into faith to be a unique "church". A church that would focus on Jesus primarily-reaching others for Jesus secondarily in a very non traditional way. Martins and Chiltons put their tithe together and rented the Sunday center with no plan, no money to promote what God called us to do, no worship team, and no chair no microphone no degree- just a heart to see others know Jesus the way we did. Within two years we went from 20 to 200 on a sunday and by the end of the 2nd year we had people standing and sitting in the halls and didn't care to do so. We knew it was time to make a move so we started shopping for a home. We met with all kinds of folks- other pastors considering helping us, city commisioner, other believers offering wisdom. We looked at probably 10 different buildings in hopes of finding a cheap place that we could call home and do more ministry than the limited wednesday night and sunday morning the munday center was so generous to allow us. we kept running into road blocks along the way-different reasons each place wouldn't work. We had a $300,000-400,000 figure in mind bc based off our budget we could make it work. We even considered at one point putting up our mortgages as collateral to make it happen. Finally, we decided to turn down the pursuit and focus on doin two services at the Munday center when we got the call from the folks at BVBC to come talk about sharing there facility (renting). Small talk took place and we agreed to make the move landing there on May 7, 2020 exactly 3 years from the launch date of MT. After being their awhile during the pandemic the dwindling older congregation could no longer support the upkeep and financials to maintain so they asked us if we would be interested in taking it over. With over 300 folks on most Sundays now we knew this was God providing the home we had prayed for. No mortgages being used, no human helping us, and no going into debt but rather a gift from the Lord (0 dollars) valued at over $3,000,000...we stayed the course, we prayed and we obeyed and God provided everything. he had a plan the whole time and it included everything the worship team, the chairs, a sanctuary, a kitchen, a bus to pick people up, offices to work out of and much much more...an entire city block in the heart of the city.

Pastor Nick Martin:  The biggest thing for me - it’s all been God. He gave us more than we could have ever thought or imagined. When we were sitting there planning to open up Matthews table five years ago, if you would have told me God would give us a church with everything in it, I probably would have laughed. But that’s exactly what He did. He has been faithful every step of the way. Starting with no worship team and no money and no real long term plan we’ve had to depend on God for every step and it’s been amazing watching Him work. From the people he has sent to the resources we now have a place to call our own.   A place where we can have a marriage ministry, food pantry, youth and kids rooms, weddings and a place that our people can call Home. Our worship team no longer has to carry everything in every Sunday just to take it back home. Our kids classes don’t have to go be in hallways, we finally have rooms and we have a building with 100 years of history of people that have gone before us that have laid the foundation in this area. I remember looking at buildings , that we could afford, which meant they all needed to be completely remolded and roofs were leaking and it just seemed impossible. Then we would look at another building and another building and it just seemed like dead end after dead end. Then we decided to start praying on Saturday nights that God would show us what to do and provide a building for us. And He did. Every Sunday we are reminded of a God who hears our prayers, we are reminded of His faithfulness.

The most beauitful part of the story is the very same time our congregation began praying for a home Buena Vista Baptist Church and their congregation was praying for a congregation that needed a home.  A very big thank you to the board and leadership of Buena Vista and their beautiful hearts.

As a believer in Christ I would not be doing the Lord justice without saying if you have struggled with your beliefs, have been hurt, or maybe your just unsure of the unknown I can promise you is God is faithful, he is real, he is mighty, and he knows your name.

If you don't have a church home we would love to have you visit our church on Sundays at  8:30 a.m. or 10:45 a.m.  ALL ARE WELCOME.