NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The March 2023 tornado devastated central Arkansas, and the Park View Baptist Church in North Little Rock was in its path.
“When we got down to the church,” Senior Pastor Brian Sheppard said. “It was just like a bomb had gone off, the complete destruction.”
Sheppard said his church was unprepared for that day's destruction, but they tried to make do for the following weeks.
“The first Sunday after the tornado, we had church in the parking lot over there,” Sheppard said. "I thought it was very important for us to be there to see where we're coming from... the next Sunday was Easter, which we were completely unprepared for because we didn't have a building.”
But help arrived in the form of an incredible act of generosity from the nearby Amboy Baptist Church.
They started to let the Park View church members worship in their large sanctuary, with Amboy members in the smaller one.
And then, an idea started to form.
“We had to face the reality of what was going on in our own small congregation,” Former Amboy church member Collins Greer said. “We had to open our doors to Park View... behind the tornado that they had experienced. We felt like they were the best option to keep a church in this location, so our best thing to do was to turn around and try to support them every way we could.”
With Amboy’s numbers declining, the two congregations decided to merge.
They’ll meet in the old Amboy building, but under the Park View name.
It’s bittersweet for the old Amboy members, but they feel it’s the right thing to do.
“It's just a name,” Greer said. “We're still a church, so if it's called Park View, so be it. We just want to do God's will... in this location.”
That led to an event Saturday afternoon, at which members of both groups gathered to celebrate Park View’s new home and to remember and honor the Amboy Baptist Church.
“On one hand, we have a new building,” Sheppard said. “But we also have to be mindful of the Amboy people coming to be with us... Some of these people have been members for 60-65 years.”
Sheppard said that the old Amboy Baptist building still needs a few upgrades, but the combined services have already begun, and they’ve been everything he hoped they would be.
“During the time that we were leasing the sanctuary, they were still having church in the small sanctuary,” Sheppard said. “So we were with each other every Sunday passing by, and so we really got to know and love the people here and served along with them.”