The waters of the Little Harpeth River engulfed Harpeth Presbyterian Church last May. / SUBMITTED
Written by Vicky Travis The Tennessean
HARPETH, Tenn. - What’s a little water to a 200-year-old, Civil-War-surviving church? To quote the pastor: Just one more thing.
Harpeth Presbyterian Church on Hillsboro Road just west of Brentwood took on about 2 feet of water throughout its sanctuary, hallways and offices during last May’s flood. The sanctuary reopened in November after its members, led by Pastor David Jones, worked to repair their beloved church.
We’re not talking about just the building here.
“Something like that just rocks everybody,” says Jones, who still feels a whiff of anxiety on gray days. “But when I saw the number of members who showed up while it was still flooding, I knew it would be OK.”
OK, that is, whether they had a building there or not.
With the exception of that flooded-out Sunday, church services never stopped.
“After 200 years, we might have a little chip on our shoulder about that,” Pastor Jones said with a laugh.
The church, built in 1831, withstood the Civil War. It’s also been flooded before. In the 1970s, a tree fell and blocked the Little Harpeth River and its levee blew out, says Jones.
Floodwaters from the Little Harpeth River spilled into Harpeth Presbyterian‘s sanctuary last May. / SUBMITTED
Yet the Easter season is about renewal. And for this church of 350, renewal is a blessed word with lots of meanings.
“This Easter is a very special time for us,” says Jones, who has pastored at Harpeth for 12 years. “It’s about new life.”
A year after the flood, the church is inviting the community to celebrate its renewal and its new relationships with its neighbors in the squeaky clean sanctuary, which reopened in November. The Flood 2010: Celebrating how God provides will be the theme at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. services on Sunday. A potluck will follow at noon. Speakers from the Wildwood neighborhood and Pastor Jones will share flood stories of hope.
Rise, fall and rise again
When the Little Harpeth River, which is right next to the church grounds, started rising on May 1, 2010, church members started filling bags with sand from the playground to stack against the signature red doors. Eventually, that effort was abandoned as the water rose and covered the sanctuary, offices and hallways in about 2 feet of water. It receded quickly, but it started raining again, so members moved pews, which were already wet on the bottom, up the hallway to the fellowship room, which is about 2 feet higher than the sanctuary. They also moved furniture and whatever they could grab from offices to that higher ground.
The water rose again on May 2 again spilling into the sanctuary, hallways and offices, across a playground, up the six or so steps on the outside door of the fellowship hall. And it finally stopped inches short of the door. “That was a double blessing,” says Pastor David Jones. Gratitude washed over them as did an urgent sense to go help someone else.
Photos of those days (and there are tons of them) remind Jones of the strength of the congregation and the volunteer spirit that spread miles around them. “Your pain is what you bring,” he says. Because members felt the pain of their own church — their safe place — flooded, they worked extra hard with their flooded neighbors. “We were one of them,” says Jones. “We understand. We know what it feels like.” About 10 households of church members were flooded, too.
So many members showed up to help at the church on Monday morning, May 3, that about two-thirds of them were sent off to Wildwood and Cottonwood subdivisions to help bail folks out there. When they heard of the huge need in Bellevue, they later went there, too.
‘Priceless’
The church suffered about $300,000 in flood damage. And there was one more thing to be grateful for: flood insurance. “We had to have it,” said Jones. “We’re in a floodplain.”
In fact, Jones and church member Ruth Knab tell the story of this church on this godforsaken land. In 1831, 20 years after the congregation started, a land-owner gave the low-lying land on Hillsboro Road next to the Little Harpeth River to the church. And until 1950, the church had just a dirt floor.
“Ironically, we’re on some of the most worthless land in Williamson County,” says Jones. “But it’s priceless to us.”
After the damage, Jones worried whether the building would be repairable. Once it was clear the foundation was OK, repairing was the plan. If they hadn’t been able to repair and had tried to sell, Jones and Knab guesstimate that they’d get next to nothing for it.
With the help of people in the congregation such as a contractor, a woodworker and many others, the church building was fully restored in November, seven months after the disaster.
Could it happen again? “I’m not worried,” says Jones.
Since then, Tennessee Department of Transportation has built a better levee on that part of the Little Harpeth River.
This story isn’t really about the building.
“God’s not through with us yet,” says Jones.
COMMEMORATION SERVICES
The Flood 2010: Celebrating how God provides
When: 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday, May 1. Potluck at noon.
Where: Harpeth Presbyterian, 3077 Hillsboro Road, Harpeth, Tennessee
More info: www.harpethchurch.org
Contact Vicky Travis at [email protected] or find her on Facebook.
