The future of a West Fort Worth church is now uncertain.
This weekend, Longvue Avenue Baptist Church discovered that 160,000 pounds of building materials meant to serve as their new sanctuary were stolen.
The plan to move the 80-person congregation to land along Old Weatherford Road is a dream Pastor Brian Fisher says has been in the works for more than three years.
“We have elderly folks that sacrificed to give. We have children that pooled their money together and gave, and families that without other things, so they could give to this,” Fisher said.
That’s why Saturday, when Fisher says he found the lock to the property’s entry gate cut, he felt a gut punch.
“It devastated us. It devastated us when we saw it,” he said.
Inside, multiple piles of 20- and 40-foot steel beams awaiting assembly were missing.
Two shipping containers were forced open and ransacked or emptied.
Fisher said materials that totaled $200,000, including insulation, cables and bolts, were gone.
It was everything needed to construct their new building.
Fisher said the church was awaiting city work required to run utilities to the property before pouring a foundation.
The materials were delivered about a year ago on three tractor-trailers.
“It’s not a small feat to move all of this. Some of the iron weighed 2,000 pounds each. So you’re not going to grab that by hand. It’s going to have to be lifted with heavy equipment, a forklift and strapped down, everything that you can think of, and hauled off,” he said.
Fort Worth police say they’re now investigating, though there’s no suspect description.
The congregation is leaning on their faith and holding onto hope that someone in the surrounding neighborhoods saw something and will come forward with information leading to an arrest.
“We trust the Lord, and we know he has a plan. But again, the right thing is if we can get it back and these perpetrators caught so that they don’t do this again,” Fisher said.
The church is now offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.