Melvin Shaw
He’s leading his church’s renovation project
The church is too small for comfort. It needs structural repairs, interior and exterior improvements, and it wouldn’t hurt to have more space for meetings, meals and more members.
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church needs a lot of things, but it doesn’t need someone to help lead its renovation project. Mel Shaw already has that covered.
“God just placed it on me to be able to contribute my time and talent, and that’s what I’ve been doing in helping organizing events and giving to the church,” he said. “I think after we’re through, after this fundraising event is complete, the church will be in a much better position structurally than it was before it took place. Financially, undoubtedly, it will be in a much better position.
“But most importantly, we’ll be able to bring more people to the church. One of the reasons why I’m doing it is I want to help bring more folks to the church. I want to create an environment at Bethel where the church has a presence in the community.”
The church figures to have a bigger presence when its renovation project is complete. Originally built in 1868 and on the state and national register of historical places, Bethel hasn’t undergone a significant overhaul in nearly 60 years.
Shaw is helping direct the church’s efforts to raise $500,000 to fund the project that will nearly double the current capacity of 60. Thus far, the church has raised $55,000 in donations.
Shaw said the “undertaking is enormous,” but he’s not alone. Others have contributed to fundraising efforts and reaching out to potential donors.
Shaw joined the church in 2001 — about the same time the previous renovation project started and ran into roadblocks. It picked up again in the spring of 2005 when the fundraising efforts led by Shaw and Venice Berry, the other co-chair of renovation and expansion committee, started picking up again.
“As a member of the church, I could see we were bursting at the seams,” Shaw said. “It was uncomfortable. We weren’t really able to relax as a congregation because the sanctuary was only about 30 foot long and very narrow, so we’re not able to really enjoy ourselves in the space we have, and we want to grow the membership, and it’s not feasible for us to do that with the space limitations that we have. Not only that, the church was in critical need of improvements on the interior and exterior.”
— Andy Hamilton
