
Church leaders at the Haywood campus of First Baptist Simpsonville Upstate Church in South Carolina narrowly prevented a tragedy by moving services to a different location just hours before the sanctuary’s roof collapsed on Sunday morning.
Wayne Bray, the lead pastor of First Baptist Simpsonville Upstate Church, which has 7,700 members worshiping at nine locations across South Carolina, explained in a video statement on Facebook that the collapse didn’t come as a surprise to them.
He stated, “One of my staff members discovered cracks in the sanctuary the night before the roof collapsed. Once they realized what the problem was, they immediately began making plans overnight to hold Sunday services in the gymnasium on the property.”
“We did not allow anybody into the dangerous building so no one was hurt. No one was even in danger of being hurt,” he added.
Bray praised the leadership, saying, “We took care of that and took the necessary precautions to ensure no one was injured. And so I’m grateful for our teaching pastor there, Dallas Wilson, such a responsible and solid leader. [He] made sure he took care of folks, and he had his volunteers and staff who made sure that we kept people in the right places and kept them out of the wrong places. To God be the glory. Everybody’s fine.”
A fire official from the city told NBC News affiliate WYFF4 that rescue crews were dispatched after they spotted the collapse at 9:31 a.m. on Sunday. According to Traci Weldie, the connections coordinator at Upstate Church Haywood, she and others were preparing for baptisms when the roof unexpectedly collapsed in the empty sanctuary.
William Dallas Wilson, the church’s teaching pastor, described the day as “a wild one,” but emphasized that the roof collapse would not hinder God’s work.
Bray explained that the church had already taken steps to secure the damaged building and assured that worship services would continue at the campus. He said, “It’s really an amazing story. Even today, with all these circumstances, we still had over 700 people in worship. People baptized in every service; it’s really an amazing thing.”
Bray closed with a statement, saying, “We have never felt like a building is our church. A building may come and go. Buildings are built and buildings fall, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ will stand forever, and that is what our faith is built on.”
The Upstate Church Haywood campus was established just two and a half years ago with a little over 100 members, and has since grown to more than 700 weekly worshippers.