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Ministry celebrates new expansion By AL DOZIER, LTN Staff Writer Nov. 21 - Christian Ministry of Lincoln County unveiled its new expansion Tuesday, the 9,000-square-foot building on South Poplar Street that formerly served as Lincoln Bank’s Operation Center. Executive Director Susan Brymer told a gathering of supporters the addition couldn’t come at a better time. “With our economy in a recession and clients coming to us in record numbers, we are ready to expand and meet that challenge,” she said. The expansion will eventually provide the ministry — supported by 87 churches in Lincoln County — with the opportunity for new programs in the future, Brymer said. Those programs will be determined through some long-range planning. “We know that education will be part of it,” she said. Brymer said the staff has been so busy with applications, there has been little time to concentrate on preparation for the facility, which once was a Coca-Cola bottling plant. But supporters of the ministry were proud to show off the expansive offices, just a walk across the street from its current operations on Water Street. The new building will help house the accumulation of toys, gifts, home furnishings and other charitable contributions that were overfilling the existing facility. It will provide new administrative office space and has a dock and loading facility. Though some renovations are needed — painting, floor cover and new partitions — the ministry has already brought supplies to the new building. Brymer formally recognized the various foundations, businesses and churches that brought about the $500,000 expansion. First Charter Bank was prepared to help Christian Ministry acquire the building, which was vacated after the Lincoln Bank acquisition. But bank officials realized the ministry did not have the resources to pay for the maintenance of such a large site. So, First Charter decided to help the ministry set up a fund large enough to generate its own income. The building would be a “challenge” to the ministry rather than a gift, Brymer said. First Charter asked that Christian Ministry pay the full purchase price of $300,000, soliciting contributions from their strong supporters throughout the area. First Charter would then return the money to Christian Ministry, and during the next two years add another $200,000, thereby providing a $500,000 interest-bearing fund that would sustain the operations of the ministry indefinitely. The fund will also provide seed money for the new Lincoln County Foundation, which will accumulate private donations to serve programs throughout the community. Brymer recognized the principle donors during the ceremony Tuesday, starting with a perennial supporter of Lincoln County community projects, The Timken Foundation, which will contribute $150,000 over a three year period. Other major contributors were: The E. Rhodes and the Leona Carpenter Foundation of Conover, $100,000; The Cannon Foundation, Kannopolis, $35,000; the Sue Dellinger family, $30,000; First Presbyterian Church, $12,400; and an anonymous donor who contributed $70,000. Brymer said some $20,000 is now available for renovations and improvements in the building, which should begin after the first of the year.
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