Crossroads Community Church - Joe's Digital Photography
By John Mulcahy <br /> Daily Telegram <br /> ADRIAN, Mich. — Adrian’s First Baptist Church has been given to Crossroads Com­munity Church, pastors of both churches said Friday.<br /> <br /> Adrian First Baptist Church announced earlier this month that this Sunday’s service would be its last due to declining attendance, budget issues and lack of younger members. The church, at 119 N. Broad St., was founded in 1831 and has been at the same location for more than 170 years.<br /> <br /> Lee Prettyman, Crossroads Community Church executive pastor, said his church has not yet decided how it will use the building. Crossroads Com­munity Church meets in the Christian Family Centre at 1800 W. U.S. 223 in Adrian Township, where it rents space for its services and other activities.<br /> <br /> “We’re thrilled, very blessed, to be given this generous gift,” Prettyman said.<br /> <br /> The Rev. George Butler, interim pastor of Adrian First Baptist Church, said the congregation was getting too small and had too many older people to do the job of ministry that it wanted to do in the community.<br /> <br /> “We looked for a church of like doctrine that might be able to do a much better job of ministry in the community,” Butler said of the decision to give the building to Crossroads Community Church.<br /> <br /> The property was conveyed as a gift, and Crossroads did not pay anything for it, Butler said.<br /> <br /> Prettyman said members of Adrian First Baptist Church approached his church late last year about the possibility of giving the church building to them. Leaders of the two churches met March 21 to sign a quit claim deed conveying the property to Crossroads Community Church.<br /> <br /> Adrian First Baptist Church also will distribute a small fund equally among The Daily Bread of Lenawee soup kitchen, the Salvation Army, Lenawee County Mission and The Christian Mission, Butler said. A set of handbells was given to the Reformed Baptist Church, Butler said.<br /> <br /> Prettyman described Cross­roads as a “contemporary” church that offers live band worship music with a friendly, approachable and welcoming atmosphere.

Folders