Where there was once a small white building on the river, there’s now a concrete foundation and some rubble. The debris is what’s left of the Million Church building.
The building was destroyed during flash flooding in Madison County June 27. The church has a regular congregation of about 30 people. Mollie Zanghi is among them.
“We kind of tell everybody, ‘We're the little country church on the creek,’” she said.
Zanghi has been attending Million Church for about a year, but she’s been attending service on and off throughout her life.
“I actually got saved there last fall, and actually got baptized in the creek that took away our church,” the Richmond resident said.
She described the church community as supportive and welcoming, with many older members. Zanghi hopes to see it grow youth and children’s programming in the future, and she said the congregation had been considering additional building space to accommodate that prior to the flood.
“We actually were trying to figure out where we would fit a youth group into our little tiny space,” Zanghi said. “Maybe...maybe God saw this. This was part of God's plan.”
The building, a converted store, was swept across a nearby bridge, and initially the top remained largely intact. Just a couple days after the flood, much of the building had been demolished and debris removal had begun.
The congregation is now using borrowed space to gather, and saw increased attendance last week.
Zanghi and other members learned about the disaster from the congregation’s group text with Pastor Jessie Lainhart, who did not respond to WEKU’s request for an interview.
The family had been at the church the night before for a revival that was supposed to continue the evening of the flood.
“There was a lot of memories that we had built there,” Zanghi said.
It’s unclear right now if the congregation will be able to rebuild, but other churches and nonprofits have stepped up to help.
KYTC handled the building removal, according to Brooklyn McIntosh, public information officer for District 7.
“Our role after a flood event is just making sure roads and bridges are safe for the traveling public, also while our crews assess damage, remove debris, and make the necessary repairs to reopen roads as quickly and as safely as possible,” McIntosh said.
KYTC cleared more than 20 dump trucks of debris from the site. The bridge itself wasn’t damaged, but the guardrails were and will have to be repaired.
Debris removal and road repairs on Tates Creek Road are ongoing.
