The new Greater St. Matthew Church of God in Christ was almost the Lesser Church of God in Christ.
Before construction could begin, Pastor Jimmie Winn and his wife, Missionary Linda Winn, both contracted COVID-19 in January and spent two weeks quarantined at home. Then, in April, a storm toppled a massive oak within a foot of the still-unassembled metal building.
“I knew God ordained this building,” Winn said.
The congregation had met at St. Matthew C.O.G.I.C. around the corner for 22 years until the condition of the building prompted plans for a new one in 2019.
“To build a church in a pandemic is really something,” Mrs. Winn said.
The new building at 312 Monroe Ave., in the Baertown community of McComb will be dedicated 2 p.m. Sunday with visits by C.O.G.I.C. dignitaries.
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Winn has been in the insurance business for 38 years and runs Winn Insurance Agency. Mrs. Winn retired last year after teaching special education at South Pike for 40 years.
Winn answered the call to the ministry in 1995.
“I really didn’t want to be a preacher,” Winn said. “Every summer the Lord dealt with me. He was basically trying to move me into the ministry. I sure don’t want to be laying on my back when the Lord says to move. That third year I went on and accepted my calling. I didn’t think I could talk, get before people.”
Winn served under the late Elder Sam Quin.
“It was a great man I was under, Sam Quin,” Winn said. “Everything I know I learned from him. He was my mentor.”
In the 1990s, Elder Quin moved to a new building, Sam Quin Institutional C.O.G.I.C., on Highway 98 East, where his son, Stanley Quin, is now pastor. The St. Matthew building stood vacant for three years until Quin gave it to the Winns, who reopened it in 1999.
“Just me, my wife and five daughters — we were the only family over there,” Winn said, noting his daughters sang gospel as the Winn Sisters. “We started our ministry, and people in the community started coming.”
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But after 22 years, “the other building over there, it was really crumbling,” Winn said. “We could tell that building had served its purpose.”
The church hired his brother-in-law, Eddie Thompson, as contractor. But the metal building lay unassembled on the ground for two years.
“We had so many issues meeting city codes,” Mrs. Winn said.
By this past January, everything was nearly ready to go when the Winns came down with COVID.
“We had everything we had in line to get the building started. We needed one more signature,” Mrs. Winn said.
The sickness postponed that until Feb. 24 — her birthday — when Winn finally signed the loan papers. A pad was completed March 18, and on April 10 the storm struck.
Thompson had just warned Winn that the big oak tree in back needed to be cut.
“Elder Winn said, ‘I’ll need to talk to God about that,’” Mrs. Winn said. “The next day that tree came down.”
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Now the 50-by-75-foot building is up and ready, with a seating capacity of 100 to 150, nearly twice as many as the old building.
The church held a trial run in its new building Dec. 4 and is ready for the dedication this Sunday.
Regular services are 11 a.m. Sundays, with Sunday school at 10 and Bible study 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Minister Christopher Nelson serves as media director.
“He works untiringly around here,” Mrs. Winn said.
Nelson was raised in the Church of God in Christ but drifted away for many years. He was called to the ministry five years ago.
“I’ve done everything else in the book. I said, ‘Why not try God?’ I tasted, found out it is good,” Nelson said.
“If you had asked me six years ago if I would be in this position I’m in now, I would have laughed at you. I went to other churches, but for some reason I keep coming back to Baertown.”
