El Reno Church Begins To Rebuild Months After Fire

Seven months after a fire burned down an El Reno church, members finally broke ground on a brand new building.

It's been a long, unexpected road for Faith Family Church members, who have been without a building since September when their church of 25 years burned down.

Faith Family Church Assistant Pastor Samantha Roach said she remembers the frightening phone call alerting her that her church was on fire.

"I was personally numb, all our memories, tapes all of our books, everything was gone, because it had burned down to the ground," said Roach.

The building had been there since 1937. Roach and her husband Paul took the church over in the late 1980's. And in one bad thunder storm, the church caught on fire. Firefighters believe the cause may have been electrical.

Without a building for seven months, Faith Family Church began to move forward.

The congregation broke ground to build a brand new building in early April.

The new church will be about 10,000 square feet, seating up to 250 people.

It'll be twice the size of the last sanctuary.

"A lot better of a situation than what we had, we had actually outgrown the old building, so this has actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise," said Martin Roach, Pastor Paul's brother and church worship leader.

The church is in need of furniture, sound equipment, and educational material.

View the church's web site.

Already, Faith Family Church said the public has been extremely generous.

“Someone spontaneously gave us a check at Sid's Diner yesterday, and we can hardly wait for the ceremony for the opening of the new building. It hurt when it went down. It was devastating, but our story is far from over," Samantha Roach said.

The church is hoping to have the new building completed and ready for service on the exact date it burned down last year, Sept. 6.

9/6/2014 Related Story: Crews Respond To Church Fire In El Reno

Faith Family Church currently meets at First Presbyterian Church until their new building is finished.

PLS Construction is building the new church, and Roach said their contractor Steve Owens of Tulsa, is also a pastor and has been amazing with helping them cut costs.

They plan to open the building debt-free.

“We just really can't wait for it to get put together,” said member Randy Croskey.