Friday afternoon, tragedy hit the congregation of Cornerstone Wesleyan Church when their sanctuary in Scott City was struck by lightning, caught fire, and was declared a total loss.
Through it all, Pastor Tommy Miller says they have received amazing support from the community, and that his phone hasn’t stopped ringing since.
“I’m just excited. I know that sounds crazy - say, ‘How can you be excited at a time like this?’” said Miller. “I’m not saying my heart’s not broken... but there’s something inside of me that knows that God’s got a great purpose, and He just wants us to be obedient and just walk with Him.”
Just today, a friend of Miller’s sent him Psalm 66:12, which reads: “You let people ride over your head. We went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.”
In the meantime, Miller has been in Arkansas at a youth church camp they had been preparing for. At the time of the incident, the kids didn’t believe they would be able to make it.
“They were saying, ‘Pastor, I guess we won’t get to do the service on Sunday that we’ve been practicing for,’” he says. “‘I guess we won’t get to go to church camp.’”
The response Miller received from the church community was: “You’re taking them kids to camp.”
The camp lasts until Friday, but Miller says the young churchgoers are still thinking about the future of their structure. When he asked them to think about what they would want out of a new youth center, they were excited about the potential.
“At the moment, I know God’s got a greater purpose,” he says. This is something he also reminds his congregation. “God’s got a plan, and that plan is bigger and greater than what we can even imagine.”
Once Miller returns from church camp, he plans to speak with church leadership groups about rebuilding. Despite some struggles, they managed to draw together the nearly 60-member congregation for their regular prayer event on Saturday.
“We’re not stopping [from] praying,” he says. “And we met there with the ashes and the smoke still coming up.”
The superintendent of Scott City High School has allowed the group to use one of their facilities for services until the end of summer.
The church’s GoFundMe campaign, “Rebuild Cornerstone Wesleyan Church of Scott City,” has already raised over $2,600.