RESTORATION STORY

Church building gets new lease on life in time for Easter Sunday.

Renew. Restore. Revitalize. These themes have cropped up over and over as the completion of a massive renovation project of a church building in Midtown means a Nazarene congregation will celebrate Easter in a new church home.

And fittingly, Midtown Church, a Church of the Nazarene congregation, will take on a new name to fit it’s newly refurbished building: Eighth Street Church.

Church leaders are inviting the general public to an Open House on Saturday at the historic building at 701 NW 8. The Rev. Chris Pollock, the church’s lead pastor, and the Rev. Michaele LaVigne, pastor of spiritual formation, said they originally thought the church project wouldn’t be completed until June but things worked out for a grand holiday opening.

“It’s pretty cool timing,” LaVigne said, smiling.

“For us, it feels very much like a resurrection story.”

The church building had faced an uncertain fate when Skyline Urban Ministries sold it to St. Anthony Hospital in 2011. Skyline had housed a food pantry, clothes closet and homeless meal ministry in the building for many years but decided to sell it and move its ministries to the organization’s south Oklahoma City location.

At one point, historic building aficionados and some Oklahoma City historians had questioned whether or not the hospital would tear down the old church but they breathed a sigh of relief when it was purchased and set up for revitalization by the Nazarene congregation.

Meanwhile, the Nazarene congregation has been gathering since November 2015 with the idea that they eventually would meet for worship in the Midtown or downtown area.

Church members have been meeting at City Presbyterian Church, 829 NW 13, on Sunday afternoons, but Easter will mark a new season for them as they host Easter services in the building at NW 8 and Lee.

The structure was built by German Methodists in 1907.

LaVigne said church leaders did all they could to ensure that many elements of the original structure have been retained.

“You feel like you are stepping into history,” she said of the areas where exposed brick is part of the newly renovated building’s aesthetic.

“We did this so you could see that you are a part of something that has been going on for a long time.”

[PHOTOS BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN] The newly renovated Eighth Street Church at 701 NW 8.

Colorful stained glass windows (left) and the sanctuary of the newly renovated Eighth Street Church.

[PHOTO BY BRYAN TERRY, THE OKLAHOMAN] A stained glass window that was found at the Eighth Street Church was installed in an interior hall at the newly renovated church building at 701 NW 8.