Courtesy photo The new Wilson Seventh-day Adventist Church in Wilson is shown. The church recently held its grand opening after being rebuilt. The original structure was destroyed by fire after a lightning strike in 2017.

WILSON — The Wilson Seventh-day Adventist Church, located on County Road 551 in Wilson, recently held its grand opening. It was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire after a lightning strike in 2017.

According to the church building committee, the Wilson Seventh-day Adventist Church has been on the same land since 1908 and counting the fire in 2017, burned down twice. Throughout the history of the church there has been a building committee, but at some point the formal building committee seemed to disappear.

It wasn’t until early 2017 that the building committee was reconstituted to begin planning updates to the school building. However, those plans were delayed because on the night of July 25, 2017, the church was struck by lightning and destroyed by fire.

Lightning hit the top of the church and the roof was engulfed in flames. It took several hours and five township fire departments to contain the fire. Township fire departments from Harris, Gourley, Spalding, Nadeau and Bark River fought the fire. The building itself remained standing, but the damage was extensive.

The newly activated building committee, which was made up of eight members including the pastor, had a new project to attend to and that was rebuilding the church.

The ground-breaking for the church did not occur until April 2019. The church was able to allocate around $2.3 million from its insurance company for the new church building. The two years of planning required many meetings, sorting out details, finding an architect, sending out bids, and finally awarding a contractor the project. Blomquist Architects, PLLC, out of Iron Mountain, designed the new church that is slightly bigger than the previous one.

The previous church was around 10,000 square feet, while the new church is around 15,000 square feet. Church officials said the new church has the ability to seat around 275 people.

The new church has a drive up canopy, a large lobby area, a main auditorium with its baptistry behind it, a mother’s room, pastor study, library, conference room, and six classrooms.

Every aspect of the new church, from the concept design of the church itself to the type of wood flooring and colors, was voted on by the constituents.

“Everyone had a voice and majority

ruled,” he said.

The new church was built by Moyle Construction of Houghton.