Azle Christian Church will host a farewell ceremony for its 1974 sanctuary March 1 during its regular 11 a.m. worship service. The service — a sort of memorial service dedicated to the building’s life — is open to members, former members and the public.
The decision to demolish the 1974 sanctuary was not easy and followed months of evaluation and difficult conversations about the building’s condition.
“They had done a few renovations in the past; the ceiling was coming down in the hallway. That was a long time ago, though, but then this past year, the ceiling was starting to come down in the sanctuary, so we removed it. Found out there was asbestos in it, and so we had to pay extra to do the abatement for that. And then after the ceiling was removed, we could see what the structure looked like, and we had a structural engineer come in, and they said the building is not viable for people to be in here any longer, and said, ‘you all need to vacate this,’” Pastor Russell Clark said.
