The membership at New Covenant Baptist Church have reason to be in a celebratory mood as five months prior to the retirement on Sunday, November 18 of their senior pastor, Bishop Simeon Hall, the church, 30 years after its establishment is debt free.
Bishop Hall and the membership burned the bank's mortgage deed during a service on Sunday, May 6 at the church. It took a little over 20 years for New Covenant Baptist Church to settle its debt.
Being able to burn the piece of paper that showed the church was indebted to the bank was a joy for Bishop Hall. The Baptist minister said it meant a lot to him to see the church he founded be debt free just five months shy of his 30th anniversary as senior pastor of the church.
"We have really come far from where we started from and I think being debt free is a major milestone for us," said Bishop Hall. "We are now at a level of physical development that is adequate for our needs and those of our community and I don't foresee the church needing another mortgage for further enhancement for years to come."
With mortgage payments out of the way, Bishop Hall hopes to see the church grow beyond its four walls.
"New Covenant has been on the cutting edge of evangelistic and social outreach throughout its 30-year history [and] I am pleased that the next administration will be free from the burden of debt and they will be much more flexible in their ability to conduct many more outreach ministries for the community. Being debt free really unties the church's hands from not being able to do as many things as it may want, so I am glad that this has occurred while I was still around to appreciate it," he said.
Bishop Hall hopes the church's new status will aid the incoming church leaders in the upward and outward development of pre-existing ministries and encourage the creation of new ones in the church.
He said reaching out and touching members of the community should be the only priority New Covenant members now have because they don't have to worry about paying a mortgage.
The church sits on two-and-a-half acres on Independence Drive and is valued at $3.5 million.
Over the years the structure was expanded to include an auditorium that has the capacity to seat 1,200 persons, an educational facility with nine classrooms, a youth center and a computer laboratory.

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