The pastor of a fire-ravaged church says insurance company problems means it will need the wider community’s help to pull off its most popular event.
In January, a massive fire tore through the Lifepointe Baptist Church on Wises Road at Buderim, destroying its main auditorium and devastating its members and community.
Each year thousands of families gather for its festive event Christmas at Lifepointe, which drew more than 35,000 people last year.
But because the multimillion-dollar rebuild could take another 18 months, senior pastor Phil Greenbury said it would hold this year’s 20th Christmas festival in the church car park.
“We are still really excited about that,” he said.
“However, we will need to ask the community for help to fundraise to help cover the costs of the event.”
He revealed the church needed the financial support due to ongoing insurance company woes.
After the blaze, the community rallied behind the church, raising $32,000 to help it get back on its feet.
But because the funds were viewed as income by its insurance company, Mr Greenbury said it impacted the church’s continuing insurance payout.
“It was so great to see people get behind us, however we have a problem with our insurance company,” he said.
“When we try to raise money for the church, they take it off us in other ways, which is very frustrating for us.
“Even our own church can’t really give, because they see it as income.”
The church administration will be creating a GoFundMe in the near future to fundraise for the event.
“If people want to help us out they will have the opportunity to very shortly,” he said.
“We’ve never asked the community to give anything towards it before, but after everything we’ve been through this year, a bit of help wouldn’t go astray.
“But we are committed either way, because it’s so important to our community and to us. We still want the event to happen and for it to be really special for everyone.
“Any financial support would be great, because we have paid a lot of money to get our demountables up and running and all sorts of things since the fire.
“The event costs us over $100,000 out of our pockets to put on.
“This GoFundMe will be for the church event though, not for the church directly.”
Mr Greenbury said it was hoped the current building would be pulled down in time for the event.
“We just want the building to be rebuilt and for the insurance money to cover that,” he said.
Related story: Church praises community as it plans rebuild
“Building costs have gone up so much since COVID. That’s the thing they are debating – is the money they offer going to be to reinstate the building or is it just the sum insured amount?
“We’ve got a company working with us to try to work with the insurance company and until they make that decision on how much they’re going to pay out, everything is basically frozen.
“I’m sure whatever happens we will rebuild something wonderful – and for our community.”
All going to plan, he said Christmas at Lifepointe would run from December 14 to 22.
“Either way we’ll do the best we can with what we have,” he said.
While initial investigations suggested the fire was started by an electrical fault in the back of the building, the exact cause has recently been pinpointed.
“The fire actually started from an exit light – the battery in it overheated and melted,” he said.
Related story: Church vows ‘to rebuild from the ashes’ after fire
“Our insurance company covers electrical faults, thankfully.
“When it is finally rebuilt, a building of our size will have fire walls or compartments so if there was another fire it won’t take the whole building out, it would just a section out.
“We will have a code we will follow.”
Since the fire, the church’s many events and services have been spread out across the Sunshine Coast.
In order to continue running its many weekly activities, the church administration has recently put demountables in the car park and called it Lifepointe Village.
“We hope to put a coffee shop in there in the future too for the community to congregate,” he said.
Lifepointe’s main Sunday service is being held at Immanuel Lutheran College stadium.
For updates on the church’s Christmas at Lifepointe fundraiser, follow its Facebook page here.
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