MARSHALL, Texas (KETK) – It was a call lead pastor David Luckert never imagined he’d get. Just after 1 a.m. on December 9th, he was told the church was on fire, and as the sun came up the extent of the damage was seen.
“It’s a significant loss to the vast majority of our property,” First Methodist Marshall lead pastor David Luckert said.
Clean-up began a few weeks ago at their day school and Christian Life Center, the only part of the church complex still standing.
“The places really that were burned, that have fire damage, have not even really been started on yet, and it’s just a very dangerous area to be in still,” Luckert said.
Luckert stepped foot inside the destroyed church for the first time on January 29th.
“Just being inside and looking over things and getting that kind of that bird’s eye view so to speak was pretty amazing. It looks even worse from in there, it’s just it’s devastating,” Luckert said.
Since the fire, the congregation has been blessed to use an unused area at the First Baptist Church of Marshall, and surprisingly, they have seen an increase in members.
“We’ve been able to start our Sunday school classes back up recently and they’ve seen an uptick in attendance there,” Luckert said.
Pastor Luckert is grateful for all the support and amazed by the unwavering spirit of the church and East Texans.
“Very deeply touched also and humbled by just the outpouring of love and care and compassion by so many people just all around the Eeast Texas area,” Luckert said.
He added the church board is now having meetings to make hard decisions about the rebuilding process, and hope to have a plan soon.
“God is not finished with us. God has not abandoned us, he has not left us alone, and this is potentially not necessarily a bad thing, we can’t label this bad or good,” Luckert said.
Luckert asked everyone to continue praying as they walk through this trying time.
