NORTHFIELD — After 12 years during which its congregation moved to eight different locations, including gathering outside for Sunday worship services under a tent, the Community Bible Church has found a new building to call home at 105 Main St.
In fact, the location is one that Pastor Robert “Bob” Emberley has had his eye on since he moved to the area in 2009, joined the Community Bible Church and started a weekly summer road race to provide a community event that would help people connect.
“This race started and finished in the parking lot of the property that we now own,” he said. “I remember thinking then as I looked at the building, ‘Now that would make a great place for a church whose first name is ‘Community,’ but dream on, Bob.’”
When Emberley first joined the Community Bible Church, it held services in a building where South Mountain Road meets Route 63. But it didn’t take long for the building to become too small for the congregation, which consists of about 50 people.
By purchasing the building and moving into 105 Main St., Emberley said the church will have “ample space” to grow. The building cost about $360,000, and Emberley explained the church was able to make a down payment of $170,000 due to its sale of the South Mountain Road property, its building fund and savings.
The church will use the space previously occupied by the Deerfield Valley Art Association’s gallery, which will instead be leasing the space that formerly housed Cameron’s Winery. Emberley said rent from the DVAA, a currently unoccupied space and the occupied studio apartment upstairs will provide “modest income” for some of the Community Bible Church’s building and ministry expenses.
DVAA President William Rathbun said that while its members rearrange the gallery in the adjacent space, the association will also reinvent its community programs. Rathbun said the DVAA had been considering moving its gallery out of the building due to rent costs, but that Emberley will offer a reduced rent to the gallery, allowing it to stay.
“We didn’t know where we were going to go because we couldn’t afford the rent, but now it looks like we’re going to be OK,” Rathbun said.
In addition to his pastoral position, Emberley works as a substitute teacher for Northfield Elementary School. Being right across Main Street from the school, Emberley said he’d like to use the church’s building for after-school or other community activities.
The Community Bible Church bought 105 Main St. from Michael Humphries, who left a note for Emberley as the new owner, wishing the congregation well and highlighting the renovations he made to the building over the years.
“He took the building, I think in 1999, he said, and it was a wreck,” Emberley recounted. “He spent about five or six years just rehabbing the place. And he really opened it up for use to the community as well, so we want to continue that spirit.”
To allow time for minor cosmetic improvements to the building, the church is aiming to hold its first service in the new space on Easter Sunday, April 4. Until then, the congregation is meeting on Sundays at 11 a.m. at 199 Main St., the C.S. Lewis Study Center. A small group of masked and socially distant members meet in the building, and everyone else listens via radio from their vehicles.
For those who would like to make a donation toward the move and other ministry expenses, contributions may be mailed to: Community Bible Church (Building Fund), P.O. Box 41, Northfield, MA 01360.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.