A Growing Church
In January 2005, attendance for Sunday School and the combined worship services reached 146. Rick Gilmartin began serving the church as Director of Worship and Discipleship in February 2005. After much work was done by church volunteers to rewire and paint the old manse with some minor remodeling, the church office was moved into the renovated half of the house at the beginning of April. In July, the Blue Ridge Presbytery meeting was held at the church. Elders and pastors from the entire presbytery converged at Tabernacle for the quarterly worship and business meeting.
As a result of the damage and rebuilding efforts caused by Hurricane Katrina in Sept. 2005, the first work team of several was organized in January 2006 and sent to the First Presbyterian Church in Biloxi, MS. The teams worked on a variety of projects in the community – mainly roofing in the early trips and drywall and deck building in the latter. The teams returned with many stories of their experiences and contact both with other volunteers from around the nation as well as the local residents as the church sought to minister to both great physical and spiritual needs in the region.
As weekly attendance at the church continued to grow throughout 2006, and after much consideration by the leadership, a Staunton Growth Group study began in September with a goal of eventually forming a daughter church in the Staunton area. A building planning committee was also formed to consider construction of an addition to the existing building that would seat 300 to address growth and space needs in the Waynesboro area. The congregation’s generous response was an increase in giving to the building fund and the mortgage on the original building was paid in full at the end 2006.
