New Beginnings Baptist Church will get a new beginning of its own this weekend.
During its nine-year history, the church has been meeting at the Quality Inn in Festus, but on Sunday, March 3, the church will hold its first service at its new home, 5 Ridgewood Drive, in Hillsboro.
The building was the original home of Hillsboro Christian Church, and after that, the building housed the former Jefferson County Special Education Cooperative. The Hillsboro R-3 School District bought the building in 2008 for $255,128 and used it as its administration center.
The district moved its operations in early 2023 to the former Diane Hall home after it purchased the Bridle Ridge Farm property on Business 21 and placed the building on Ridgewood Drive up for sale.
The school district’s Board of Education voted 5-0 on Feb. 22 to approve a lease agreement with New Beginnings Baptist Church, which will lease the 5,232-square-foot building for $1,800 per month for 22 months.
The lease is defined as a “triple net” lease, in which the church will assume the costs of maintenance and insurance. Such leases typically carry a lower monthly payment than market conditions would dictate.
“It (the monthly lease payment) is probably a little below what the market is,” Superintendent Jon Isaacson said. “The payment was set at a rate to benefit the district with rental income with no added cost exposure to our taxpayers, without trying to gouge the church. We believe this is a win-win for the district and its taxpayers, as well as for the church.”
At the end of the lease, the district and church have a separate contract that calls for New Beginnings to buy the building for $325,000, and the church has placed a $25,000 non-refundable deposit toward the purchase.
The Rev. Wayne Norris, pastor of New Beginnings, said he’s pleased with the agreement.
“I want to say that the superintendent, Jon Isaacson, and the board have been wonderful giving us this opportunity,” Norris said. “They did everything they could to make this deal work for all of us. They decided (by extending the lease) to trust us and we’ll honor that trust.”
Hillsboro school board president John Linhorst said he was happy the arrangement was approved.
“I’m satisfied that this agreement allows an organization rooted in our community to establish a location that is strategically positioned to best serve their community membership,” he said.
Norris said his church’s initial proposal to just buy the building failed.
“They (lenders) wanted a considerable amount down and at high interest rates. The commercial loan we were looking at wasn’t going to work for us,” Norris said. “We went back to the school and asked if there was another way we could make it work; they offered the deal and we took it.”
Norris said the monthly lease payments will be “about the same” as what the church has been paying Quality Inn.
The agreement with the church came after two other offers to buy the building from the school district fell through.
“We’ve had this property up for sale for some time,” Isaacson said.
Heather Flora, a charter member of New Beginnings, said the church started in January 2015 after Norris retired as pastor of First Baptist Church of Hillsboro and several members went with him to start the new church.
She said New Beginnings currently has an average attendance of 20 to 30 people at its services at Quality Inn.
“For some of us, it’s kind of a homecoming,” she said.
Norris said he expects the congregation to grow now that the church will have its own place, and that in the next 22 months, that growth, combined with pledges from current members to help financially, will generate the purchase payment.
“If you trust in him, the Lord will provide,” Norris said, noting that “a lot of good-hearted Christian people live in the area.”
He said a church in Sullivan recently agreed to donate chairs to New Beginnings.
“We were expecting 80 chairs, but they gave us 130, which is what we figured we needed if we’re going to grow. They told us that they were praying for the right place to get them. That saved us probably $5,000. God provides.”
More is needed, Flora said.
“What do we need? Look around your own church, and that’s what we need,” she said. “We need little tables and chairs for Sunday school. We could use a sectional sofa for our teen room. We need a nice table for the Lord’s Supper and tablecloths. Toys for the children’s area. We need toilet paper and everything that’s needed that you don’t have to think about. We shouldn’t need Bibles and hymnals, though. I won’t have to have that box in my trunk anymore.”
Flora said in the past, several members had to store supplies in their homes, and the church had to rent a storage unit in Cadet for items it uses to stage dramas.
“There will be a lot of work getting everything here (to Hillsboro),” she said, “but it will be good work.”
Flora said the good news about the new site comes after a couple of not-so-good incidents at Quality Inn. In November, the conference room that the church was preparing for a holiday play was burglarized and vandalized, and many of the costumes stolen or ruined.
A similar incident occurred just before Halloween.
“But good came out of that,” Flora said. “People heard about what happened, and they donated clothing, costumes and money to us.”
New Beginnings will hold services at 11 a.m. at the new site, with Sunday school starting at 10 a.m.
Flora said a picnic-type lunch with sandwiches will be served after the first service.
Anyone with questions about donations to the church may call Norris at 347-239-2258.