River of Life church to share celebration with the public Jan. 10-12

The River of Life Church, which moved in September from 870 Savage Rd. in Van Buren Township into a huge facility at 16650 Sumpter Rd. that needed lots of tender loving care, is ready to be shown off to the public.
Pastor Eddie Marcum said Phase 1 of the renovations are done and the public is invited to tour the church from 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 10. He said most of the renovations, flooring, and painting was done on a volunteer basis by members of the congregation.
Phase 2, which will come in the future, will include opening the cafeteria, he said.
The public also is invited to the 6 p.m. worship service on Saturday, Jan. 11, and the 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 12, Grand Opening Ceremony that will feature a video on the history of the church.
Last fall River of Life, which needed a larger church because of a growing congregation, switched locations with Lighthouse Worship Center, which needed a smaller facility because of a fall in membership.
The Sumpter Road church is 34,000 square feet on almost 20 acres, just north of Bemis Road in Van Buren Township. The building includes a full-court gymnasium with a stage, a sanctuary, two kitchens, a dining hall, many offices and classrooms and a work-out room with parking for about 200 vehicles.
The Savage Road church is 4,889-square-feet in size on about 8.72 acres, just west of Martinsville Road.
Pastor Marcum said they planned to hold services in the gym for the first ten weeks so they can make some repairs, but it took longer.
He said the large church will be used for youth activities, community activities, special-needs services, and many more events.
Every year the church has held a free luncheon for first responders and that will continue, he said. Pastor Marcum said Van Buren Township Public Safety Department asked him to be chaplain and he said he enjoys it.
He said his daughter has a degree in teaching English as a second language and so that will be offered.
“We’ve been blessed with a good congregation and we are really growing,” Pastor Marcum said. “And, we got a pretty good price.”
He said his father Paul Marcum came to the Belleville area in 2002 and there were 10 members in the church on Savage Road. He brought 15 more with him. They went back to being an Assembly of God and now the church has close to 300 members.
Pastor Paul retired and turned over the church to his sons Pastor Eddie and Assistant Pastor Stephen.
Pastor Eddie Marcum said when they first came to Belleville it was August of 2002 and there were 25 members. Now, just 17 years later they needed a larger building, which is exciting, he said.
Pastor Marcum said many family members take part in leading church activities, including his “retired” father.
He said they will be removing the pews from their new sanctuary and putting in comfortable chairs, which will save them money in insurance costs. Pastor Marcum said it has to do with bolted-down pews being considered by the insurance company as part of the building and moveable chairs considered as contents.
He said another church showed interest in the pews. Work also had to be done on the septic field.
In the summer of 2015, the Belleville Lighthouse Church, which then was located on Willis Road near Rawsonville in Sumpter Township, purchased the former Power Centre Church International on Sumpter Road in Van Buren Township.
Lighthouse needed more space and already had construction drawings to expand its Willis Road church when it decided to buy the larger Sumpter Road site which was for sale.
“Buying a much-larger existing church was a better choice than spending funds on expanding on our smaller facility,” said then-Pastor Jim Lockard. “We ended up with almost twice the space with great amenities. The new building even has the benefit of handicap access, bathrooms and an elevator.”
The Power Centre church, built in 2006 with seating for 400 on 19.06 acres, was listed for sale for $1,675,000 after the church filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 20, 2013. A bank in Georgia lent the congregation $6 million to build the complex.
Pastor Lockard told the Independent that Lighthouse was able to buy The Power Centre for $850,000 with $650,000 paid at first and $250,000 more once the former church on Willis was sold.
Lighthouse began in a storefront in 1965. By 1972, the congregation had grown significantly, so members completed necessary renovations and moved to 51185 Willis Rd. When they outgrew that building in 1986, they added on a new sanctuary with classrooms and offices while the original sanctuary was converted into the current fellowship hall.
As the years went by, they fully air-conditioned the building and added a shed in the parking lot for storage. The building is now 9,400 square feet in size.
“We were blessed to have such a nice place to worship for all of these years,” Pastor Lockard said. “With this wonderful opportunity to relocate, we can pass on our blessings to a new owner,” he said in 2015.
Now, Pastor Bob Lafferty and his wife Tina are leading Lighthouse and they also are passing on their blessings to a new owner. Pastor Lafferty said he grew up in the Lighthouse church and has been at Lighthouse for 18 more years after becoming a pastor.
He said the congregation dwindled down and they tried to make a run of it, but that didn’t happen.
“We need a smaller place now and this works out perfectly,” he said of the switch with River of Life. “We’re looking forward to it. We’re moving forward. That’s our motto: Moving forward, looking forward, no looking back.”