Journey Church is raising the roof on the former Grace Community Church. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Tim Pallesen
The arrival of the Journey Church in East Boynton is raising the roof.
The original $2 million project announced last year to accept Grace Community Church’s gracious gift of church property at 715 S. Federal Highway has grown into a $3.5 million renovation project.
The 12-foot ceiling in the original sanctuary will double in height to 24 feet so it also can be a large gymnasium when the new Journey Church opens in November.
“The scope of the project got bigger,” the Rev. Scott Baugh said. “It has moved from being just a place to worship on Sundays to become a seven-day-a-week community center.”
About 1,300 people attend the congregation’s Sunday worship services now at Park Vista High School. Many are young families with children.
The elderly members of Grace Community Church were so impressed by the Journey Church’s spiritual energy last year that they gave their church to the younger congregation.
Journey Church members have contributed $1.2 million to prepare their new church home since then. Another $400,000 fundraising drive is under way now.
“They’re really pumped,” Baugh said. “A lot of people have made sacrifices.”
This won’t be the typical church when it opens.
“When people enter our lobby, they will feel like they are walking into a giant Starbucks,” the pastor says.
Journey Night Out on Wednesdays will be open to the community, with food trucks and access for children to the gymnasium and giant indoor play area.
Recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in Celebrate Recovery will have the church for fellowship on Thursday nights. Food will be given to the poor on Mondays.
“We feel there is a huge need in this area,” Baugh said. “It is exciting to see all the lives that are going to be touched.”
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Volunteering to be a sheriff’s chaplain has rewards for the chaplain, too.
“It rekindles what originally drove them to give their life to God,” said Bill Gralnick, the sheriff’s officer who schedules the volunteers.
Chaplains bring spiritual comfort to families after someone has died in a murder, suicide or tragic accidents where the sheriff has been called. They also ride with deputies, who often turn to the chaplains when they need spiritual guidance.
“When you come out of seminary, all of a sudden there is this world of administration — how to pay for the new social hall, the parking lot needs to be paved. Clergymen say this is not what I originally signed up for,” Gralnick said.
Rabbi Robert Silvers of B’nai Israel in Boca Raton agreed his religious training focused on improving the lives of others.
“I don’t think we learned how to run a synagogue,” said Silvers, one of the first sheriff chaplains. “We learned how to minister to people.”
Gralnick is looking for retired clergy to volunteer for daytime calls. Active clergy, with jobs during the day, cover the night shifts.
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An Air Force chaplain from Operation Iraqi Freedom has landed at St. Lucy Catholic Church in Highland Beach.
“My heart has always been in the South County. I’m so happy to be here,” the Rev. Daniel Horgan said.
Horgan, 41, graduated from Lynn University in Boca Raton and St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach. He served at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Delray Beach for five years before joining the Air Force. He will assist longtime St. Lucy senior pastor Rev. Gerald Grace. “I’m excited about learning from a true Irishman,” the Irish-born Horgan said.
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First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton is preparing for what it says will be “the largest food collection drive ever in South Palm Beach County,” in September.
The congregation’s annual Weekend of Service began two years ago with 450 volunteers in a variety of charitable projects.
Last September, more than 600 volunteers packaged 40,000 meals of soy, rice, vitamins and protein for delivery to children in Third World countries. Another 60,000 meals were packaged by the First Methodist congregation after Easter this year.
Church leaders were hard-pressed to top that when they gathered to discuss a food drive for this year’s Weekend of Service.
“Out of my mouth came the words that this will be the largest food drive ever,” said the Rev. Tom Tift, who admits to being a bit amazed by the magnitude of his proclamation.
To gather a record amount of food, First Methodist is partnering with the Palm Beach County Food Bank, Boca Helping Hands, C.R.O.S. Ministries and the Jacobson Family Food Pantry. The congregation is rallying schools, businesses, other congregations and neighborhoods in both Boca Raton and Delray Beach to participate.
“My dream is for this to become an annual community event where nobody realizes that First Methodist started it,” Tift said.
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The new associate pastor at First Presbyterian in Delray Beach began her ministry on the early morning shift at Starbucks.
Jessi Higginbotham grew up loving her Jacksonville church. So ministering came naturally as she served coffee to her 5 a.m. regulars.
“It taught me about pastoral care and taking care of people,” Higginbotham said. “They became my family.”
After three years at Starbucks, her boss suggested she quit and go into the ministry, which she did.
Higginbotham, 31, becomes the associate for youth and young adults at First Presbyterian. She spent the last four years as youth pastor at a church in Fayetteville, Tenn.
She replaces Rev. Aaron Janklow, who resigned last September to pursue a doctorate degree in Scotland.
Tim Pallesen writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Email him at tcpallesen@aol.com.
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