LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (BP) – Parkway Place Church celebrated the return to their worship center 17 months after severe weather caused major damage to the facility.
On March 29, 2023, a tornado, categorized as an EF-3 by the National Weather Service, with winds of more than 165 mph, tore through areas of Little Rock, North Little Rock and Jacksonville leaving devastation in its wake.
Parkway Place Church received major damage. The worship and office and education buildings received the brunt of the destruction, with blown out windows, water damage and more. The children’s building and two church vans also suffered damage. In total, the church had about $2.5 million worth of repairs.
“It has been a long process to get it all back,” Senior Pastor Matt Overall said. “We were very fortunate God looked out over the church. … We were able to still meet and able to do everything we still needed to do and were able to still serve the community through it all.”
Overall, who was voted into his position two days after the tornado, was at a get-acquainted meeting with the church’s leadership team when the weather turned ominous. Despite the damage to their own building, Overall said church members instantly began doing what they could to help the surrounding community.
“It hit and we immediately started taking water out into the neighborhood and food and helping the people we could help,” he said.
On that Saturday, the church had scheduled a cookies and coffee event to meet Overall before voting on him that Sunday. They canceled that event and instead served the community.
“That Saturday morning, we got going around 8 a.m. here. It was neat how Parkway Place just kind of became the hub of activity,” he said. “We got to see the church be the church that weekend.”
At the time, few members knew Overall and his family yet, and Overall and his family did not know many of them. While helping after the tornado, Overall would ask people he interacted with if they were a church member. He said about 40 percent said, “Yes,” and the other 60 percent said, “No, we just came to help.”
In the year and half since the tornado, Overall said the church has had 38 people join. For many, the Aug. 25 service was their first time to be in that part of the facility. While repairs on the worship center were being completed, the congregation met in the children’s building worship arena.
“We were faithful, and we got to see the church grow. People were joining our church never even knowing what our worship center looked like,” Overall said.
“They have been in and out of that children’s building and that is all they’ve really known. To see them get to see the church in a new light and then get to see everybody who was familiar with this building and how different it all is … it was really a neat mixture of emotion in the room from a lot of folks.”
Additionally on Aug. 25, the church celebrated nine baptisms in its newly repaired worship center and welcomed a new student pastor.
“There was just a really neat atmosphere of excitement and celebrating the last year and a half of everything and really looking forward to what is going to be. It was great,” Overall said. “It’s just been great to see the church and how they have continued to want to be mission minded and be outward focused.”
Soon, the church will relaunch its Connect groups, another milestone for the church as it gets back to its small group Bible studies. Overall also noted several missions opportunities on the horizon for Parkway Place Church, including One Day Acts 1:8 Missions Experience.
“We had to focus a little inside but now that focus is on the outside in our community. We’ll continue to plan those things and see how God is going to develop the church,” Overall said. “We’re ready to turn the chapter into another.”
This article originally appeared in the Arkansas Baptist News.
