From cars to Christ: Church moving to vacant dealership

By Jean Gordon
jmgordon@clarionledger.com

The new owner of a long-shuttered car dealership on U.S. 80 in west Jackson will offer something to the neighborhood besides auto parts, payday loans and daily rate motel rooms.

The building in August will become home to the Metro East church of Christ, a six-year-old congregation headed by WLBT-Channel 3 meteorologist Paul Williams.

"It's an undertaking and it can sometimes become overwhelming because I have another job," said Williams, who delivers weekday morning weather forecasts. "My day starts at 4 o'clock in the morning."

Despite his busy schedule, Williams is overseeing the first phase of renovations of the 25,000-square-foot building. The boarded-up property, which cost the nondenominational church $250,000, had been vacant for about a decade, attracting vandals and transients seeking shelter.

Metro East church of Christ member Lewis Hartwell, a 53-year-old retired paper maker, said the church will bring more life into the area and possibly attract more members.

"It's going to help revitalize Highway 80," said the Jackson resident of 28 years. "The best thing about that building is visibility."

Metro East currently meets in a small building obscured by trees across the street from Battlefield Park in Jackson.

After the 600-seat worship space is complete, Williams plans to raise the money to construct and run a feeding center, English as a Second Language classes and an after-school program. A separate nonprofit organization called Uplifting Ministries will administer the services.

Williams also hopes to partner with a local hospital to open a medical clinic and plans to set up an early childhood learning center in the car showroom - which still bears the old Howard Wilson Chrysler-Plymouth sign and salespeople's names on the doors.

"This is the crown jewel," he said about the preschool program.

The congregation of 150 regular worshippers had been planning to buy a new building on McDowell Road a year ago, but Williams said the deal fell through.

Williams stumbled upon the old auto dealership when he pulled into the parking lot one day because of car trouble. He later thought the building would make a good site for a church and community center and spent the next four months tracking down its owner.

"Ultimately it turned out the owner is a member of the church of Christ," Williams said. "When the guy found out we're trying to put a church there he donated a half million dollars to us so we can finance it." The property originally had listed for $750,000, he said.

Along with providing a worship space and community center, the cavernous building will house a weight room for the neighboring Jim Hill High School football team free of charge.

"We've been begging for a place to work out," said coach Damion Longino. "We've been lifting in our locker room and in the hallway."

Longino and the players plan to move their equipment into the church in August.

"The church is right behind our practice field," he said. "We can just walk back there."

With a dedicated weight training room, Longino can more easily solicit donations for more equipment, which he said will level the playing field against teams from Meridian and Hattiesburg.

"They have state-of-the-art weight rooms," he said.

Longino also believes the church will have a positive impact on the neighborhood and his players' lives.

"The church is going to help that area so much," he said. "We try to teach our kids to be good husbands and fathers and men. Some people may need some spiritual enrichment."

Williams started preaching in 1999 when his small Clinton church needed a volunteer minister.

"All I was going to do was a few sermons," he said. "I had never in my life thought of becoming a minister."

But when the assignment dragged on for more than a year, Williams decided to enroll in Magnolia Bible College in Kosciusko.

"There came a point where if I was going to do this, I was going to do it right," he said. "That's where Metro East came in."

Williams said his ministry tries to combat social problems by helping to strengthen families.

"The only way you can possibly change crime is to change the family structure," he said. "If we can beat it on a cellular level, we can cut out the disease."

The married father of three teenage daughters plans to continue working as a meteorologist while running Metro East.

He admits his TV notoriety has helped him get support for the new church building, but said name recognition only goes so far.

"When you're on television people may take a phone call a little easier," Williams said. "But if you don't have anything to say, they say, 'Well, nice talking to you.' "