The First Baptist Church of Evans property has been sold, Meybohm Realty has announced.
The commercial properties wing of the Augusta firm revealed in an email newsletter, Friday, that it had successfully closed 515 N. Belair Road, representing the sellers, First Baptist Church of Augusta.
The members of First Baptist Churches of Evans and Augusta voted last May to merge the two congregations, moving the members, and transferring ownership, of the former to the latter.
The three-acre church property was put up for a closed-sale bid auction in September of last year.
Meybohm Commercial did not disclose the buyer in its announcement, but did describe the property—which sits at the busy intersection of North Belair and Washington roads—as a “unique redevelopment opportunity” within a “premier retail node” that was the “remaining signalized corner yet to be developed for commercial.”
First Baptist of Augusta will use the proceeds to establish an endowment, to be used to expand outreach throughout Columbia County, said Pastor Will Dyer.
“When our churches merged, we did a substantive study on the on the number of brick-and-mortar churches in Evans,” said Dyer. “Within a five-mile radius, there are countless churches that are already in existence. And so, we understood what Evans needs is not another brick-and-mortar structure that is called a church, because we understand the church, according to Jesus, is not a building, but it’s a people.”
Through the endowment, FBC Augusta would be able to invest “tens of thousands” of dollars into ministries and missions in Columbia County, Dyer said while noting that 60% of the church’s members live there.
The pastor also acknowledges that there is a grieving process for a building that for decades had been a place of worship for so many families. He also says that because of the long-term implications of the sale, the closure of a building means the further development of a ministry.
“To see that building come down over the course of the next six months will be hard… we grieve because something tangible will be no longer there, but we celebrate because the gospel will continue to spread through Evans and Columbia County,” Dyer said.
The transition of the Evans church’s members to the Augusta congregation has been a “beautiful thing,” he says, but that he wants to “make sure that all respect is paid for the closure of a building that funerals, weddings, child dedications happened in. That’s important, too.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
