St. Louis church vandalized, causing thousands of dollars in damage

By Shoshana Stahl

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    ST. LOUIS, Missouri (KMOV) — A church in St. Louis was broken into and vandalized on Saturday.

The Church of Non-Denomination’s members are trying to pick up the pieces and rebuild what they can.

Pastor Jack Hill’s family founded the church more than 50 years ago and has been in the building on Goodfellow Boulevard for the last 30 years.

“We keep on going,” Pastor Hill says. “We don’t let anything stop us so we’ll clean this up and get it put back together somehow.”

Pastor Hill says his parents and siblings have all passed away, leaving him as the only one left to run the church.

He’s still in shock that his church was destroyed.

“You have to wonder why,” Pastor Hill says. “That’s the biggest question in my mind right now. Why? It doesn’t make sense. Why destroy a church? A church is the one place you can go where salvation is free. You can be saved just by stepping through the door.”

Pastor Hill says it’s going to cost thousands of dollars in repairs.

Among the things damaged were religious statues, lighting, a piano, an organ and the sound system.

However, it’s the irreplaceable items that mean the most to Pastor Hill.

“They have sentimental value,” Pastor Hill says. “Some of the things that we bought together and found together. We won’t find it anymore. I try not to think about it too deeply because I know how deep it runs. You take a deep breath and just keep on going. That’s what my father would want me to do. He wouldn’t want me to stop.”

Church choir director Sylvia Curtis has been with the church for 22 years and is trying to process all of the damage from the vandals.

“All we do is come to worship and we sing and give praises to the lord and this is just devastating to see that someone actually had that mentality to come in and destroy everything that they destroyed,” Curtis says.

Curtis says her faith is what will help her and the rest of the church members through this tough time.

“We’re still going to pray for the individual even though we don’t know who they are,” Curtis says. “But we can pray for them that whatever anger they have in their heart, that God will relinquish that.”

Additional safety measures have been added to prevent any more damage to the church.

In-person services were canceled on Sunday and will continue to be canceled until everything can be cleaned up and replaced.

In the meantime, people can watch those services online here: churchcnd.wixsite.com/nondenomination

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