FORT WAYNE – The National Weather Service in northern Indiana says northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio are likely to see more record-breaking heat on Monday.
It was impossible to miss the cardboard boxes scattered around The River, a church in Southwest Fort Wayne, on Sunday.
There were boxes on the side of the auditorium, on the stage, on tables and even dozens hanging from the exposed ceiling.
The church had recently relocated to a new building, but the boxes weren't remnants of the move.
They were symbols, lead pastor Mark Cleaveland explained, of how God could bring life into dead places.
"We want to leverage this box, this tool, for kingdom purposes," he told his congregation. "Church is not a building, it's a collection of people who love God and pursue God regardless of whether you have a building."
The River, a five-year-old congregation, dedicated its new church during two special services Sunday. More than a hundred people gathered at the first service to pray, sing, enjoy refreshments, and watch videos about the history of the church and its search for a new home, which it found in the former Your Friends and Neighbors building at 1515 Magnavox Way.
Since Cleaveland and his wife started the church several years ago, the congregation has rented space at Lafayette Meadows Elementary, Summit Middle School and Canterbury high school. But a year ago, Cleaveland said, he had a vision that God would provide a more permanent space.
Through the help of Project Design Management Inc., The River converted the 24,000-square-foot office building into a modern auditorium, a gathering area, a café and rooms for children.
Cleaveland said the new location will serve as a base to do good work in the community, including starting another church.
"I love what they've done with the place," said Jill Chadwick, who has been coming to the church for a year and a half. "At least people will be able to find us now. When you move from place to place, you sometimes lose people."
Your Friends and Neighbors, which served developmentally disabled clients, closed in October 2010 after the director, CEO Ernest Beal, got in trouble with the law.
Beal was convicted of theft for raiding clients' trust funds, which held money from the clients' Social Security checks, paychecks and other income.
State authorities cut off Medicaid reimbursement, eventually withholding about $1.7 million.
The company cited the Medicaid cutoff as its breaking point when it shut its doors, unable to make payroll or buy groceries for group home clients, who were quickly moved to other providers.
