Pastor Prentis Evans has been at Albany United Church of the Nazarene for the past five years. He said he has seen the church before COVID-19 and went after COVID-19 and now believes the disease is becoming a thing of the past.

During the past several months, the church has come up with something it felt the community needed.

Albany United Church of the Nazarene has built a pavilion behind the church and will use it for many things associated with the church, but the main reason it was built was for the community.

Since the erection of the pavilion, the church has hosted two dinner,s with the first one being for the fire department and their families and the second for small business owners, employees and their families.

“The first one we had was for the fire department and there wasn’t enough seating for everyone who showed up, but it was good,” Evans said. “We have some outdoor speakers coming if someone wants to use it for a wedding or whatever.”

The building is 36 feet by 50 feet long equipped with lights, ceiling fans and hand built treated picnic tables.

“They have been thinking about doing this for a long time and they had been kicking the can around about it,” Evans said. “We finally said, you know what? Let’s just build it and be done. The whole time people were talking about how it would be good for church dinners, weddings, birthday parties, Easter egg hunts and one evening I was sitting there in the office and I was just thinking about all this and how good this is going to be for our church and then the Lord kind of said ‘Build this not just for the church, but this is for your community.’”

Evans pondered the question of “How can we use this for our community?” Evans said he started praying about it and he told the church board that this needed to be used for the community as well.

“So we started it on the first Wednesday of every month,” Evans said. “We started a program called G.R.O.W., ‘Gather, Rest, Outreach, Worship’ in hopes it would not only grow our community in faith, but grow our church as well.”

Evans said they have hosted two events and both have had success.

“A lot of the small business, in the past two years, have had it rough. Some of them are lucky to still be in business,” Evans said. “I was talking with my associate pastor and I was like let’s do this and do it for the community and not ask them for anything in return. We just want to be a blessing because we have been blessed. And that’s what the Lord does … He blesses us so we can bless others.”

Evans said his congregation has really gotten on board with the idea of giving back to the community.

“We are planning one every month as long as the weather permits,” Evans said. “I think it’s something that’s needed in our community for the church to be what Jesus commissioned us to be. We are trying to do that the best way we can. None of this belongs to us … it all belongs to Him and we are just caretakers for a short while.”

Albany United Church of the Nazarene has continuing plans to keep adding to their property, including some playground equipment, paving the parking lot and building a new entrance to the church.

“We just purchased this piece of property next to the church and we plan on building a new entry way into the church. The church has needed that for a long time,” Evans said. “A lot of folks don’t even know this place is over here, so if we clear this lot it will be a main entry way, so you don’t have to come behind the funeral home.”

Evans said he feels like they can do more in the community if more people knew where the church was and he feels like an access road will do that.

Pastor Evans has been with the church since 2008 and he said he has worn many hats at the church during that time including, Sunday school teacher, van driver, youth minister, associate pastor, interim pastor and now he said he’s the janitor and the pastor.

“December 7, 2008, I gave my heart to the Lord in this church,” Evans said. “I love it … a lot of guys first into the ministry, they don’t get to serve in a church like this. Albany United is a great church full of great people. To have a congregation like this on your first pastorate, it’s beyond anything I could ever dream of.”

In addition to all the cosmetic improvements Evans is completing to the outside of the church facility, he also said they have plans to start a Christian School within the church.

“Something else we are excited about, and it’s something the Lord has put upon me, is we are going to open a Christian School,” Evans said. “I know we already have one in the community and we are not trying to compete. Our goal is to just offer more. More Christian education is something our society needs more of. I would hope that every community could have one or two Christian schools available to kids who want to attend and go to. Hopefully with that will probably be a new facility built if the Lord will allow it.”

Albany United Church of the Nazarene is located behind Talbott Funeral Home in Albany.

Pastor Prentis Evans in front of the new pavilion at Albany United Church of the Nazarene that will be available for use by the entire community.