Worden ? What do you do if you’re a little, old country church trying to raise money to fund the construction of a whole new facility?

Well, if you’re Worden United Methodist Church, the answer is simple: You build yourself a house.

That’s what members of the church — 31/2 miles west of the Baldwin junction — joined by individuals and businesses from surrounding communities, did in an effort to beef up the church’s building fund. They joined together, donating much of the material for the job plus volunteering hundreds of hours of labor, to build a three-bedroom home in nearby Baldwin.

Then the church sold the home this week — price tag: $186,400 — to realize a profit of about $50,000. All of which gets tucked directly into the church’s building fund, which now amounts to $569,000.

And that’s just about what the Methodist church needs to have on hand to break ground this summer on a new, approximately $965,000 facility that will largely replace its outdated, 80-year-old building.

Utilizing resources

The idea of launching such a labor-intensive fund-raiser didn’t seem crazy to the 180 or so active members of the congregation. In fact, it kind of made sense.

“We’re a blue-collar church, and we have people in almost every trade,” said Rob Harris, superintendent of the building-fund project and owner of Harris Heating & Cooling.

“We have people who are plumbers, electricians, painters, builders, (skilled with) heating and air. We drew upon the resources that we had.”

John Heckathorne, left, and Rob Harris explain the floor plan for the expansion of Worden United Methodist Church, shown in the background. They are directing the church's building-fund project. The present facility is 80 years old.

Did they ever.

The results of the efforts of about 50 volunteers were on display this week in the form of a 3,100-square-foot, ranch-style home with all the amenities, located in the FireTree Estates residential development in Baldwin.

The house features three bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a kitchen, an office/den, a sewing room, utility room, a screened porch and deck, a two-car garage and a full, finished basement.

This is no amateur deal; the people who volunteered on the project knew what they were doing. It’s one classy home.

“I love it — they did a beautiful job,” said Marilyn Good, who recently sold her Lawrence home and is in the process of moving into the Baldwin residence.

“I just thought with the church guys building it that it was an opportunity for both me and them. I wanted to move to Baldwin anyway, because my kids moved here in July.”

For Good, who has belonged to Worden United Methodist Church since she was 12, buying the house was a way to help support her congregation’s efforts to acquire a new home for itself, too.

“I guess it’s just been my whole life, basically. All my grandparents helped build the original church,” said Good, who attends worship services in Worden every Sunday.

John Heckathorne, left, and Rob Harris adjust cabinet hinges in the new Baldwin house that volunteers built. The house sold for 86,400.

One of the volunteers who could often be found working on the Baldwin house was John Heckathorne, assistant superintendent of the church’s building-fund project.

Sense of ownership

Heckathorne, a builder, is owner of Heck’s Houses Inc. It was pretty much his idea to construct a home as a fund-raiser.

“One way for me to be able to donate more (to the building fund) would be by donating more time on the house,” said Heckathorne, a Baldwin resident and member of the church since 1989.

Harris, who lives a couple of miles from the church and has been a member since 1982, thought it sounded like a good idea.

“One of the reasons we did this project was to let people who maybe couldn’t give financially the opportunity to have a sense of ownership in our new facility through sweat equity in this house,” Harris said.

But it wasn’t just members of the church who volunteered to help build the house.

Businesses and people who were not even connected to the congregation also donated labor and materials for the job. They came forward from Lawrence, Baldwin, Ottawa, Overbrook and Centropolis.

“It’s been exciting to see the community get behind this project and really roll up their sleeves,” Harris said.

So is building a house a good idea for a church fund-raiser?

“If you try to have a bake sale every Sunday for six months, you’re not going to raise $40,000 or $50,000. But you need people who have the right heart, willing to be sacrificial with the giving of their time,” Harris said.

Would they do it again?

“It’s been a lot of hard work. I wouldn’t start another one tomorrow,” Heckathorne said.