PINNACLE — In the three weeks since the fire that destroyed Shoals United Methodist Church, the congregation has found a new home while waiting for the OK to begin the rebuilding process.

Church members have every intention of rebuilding the structure that would have been 110 this year before it was destroyed by an early-morning blaze July 3. They are anxiously awaiting the investigation into the cause of the fire to be concluded and the insurance company to gather all of its information.

“There’s not really much going on right now. We’re having to sit still and let all the investigations wrap up and take place,” said Joseph Fulk, the pastor of the church who preached his first sermon in the field across the road from the church the day after the blaze. “We have all intentions of building it back. But we need to have a little more information ourselves before we can do so.”

“Just as soon as the insurance turns it loose, we’re going to start again,” said Juanita Moser, who lives across the street from the church and first reported the blaze.

In the meantime, the congregation has started meeting in the fellowship hall of Shoals Baptist Church, which sits just up the road from Shoals United Methodist. They are still having Sunday school at 9:45 a.m. and worship service at 11 a.m. and plan on being in that building for at least a couple of months.

“They’ve been really good about it,” said Moser of Shoals Baptist allowing them to use the fellowship hall. “They meet upstairs and we meet downstairs.”

According to Fulk, the two churches have a long history of working together for the betterment of the community. They host homecoming together each year as well as Vacation Bible School. He said that having a church that is of a different denomination be willing to work so closely is proof of a unique history between the two. When preachers still visited the area in circuits, meaning they were only at a church one or two weeks a month, it worked out that Shoals United Methodist and Shoals Baptist had preachers on different weeks. On the off weeks they would go to each others’ churches to hear a message.

“These churches have a long history together. There’s a lot of inter-marrying between families and a lot of the people have lived around each other for generations,” he said. “It speaks volumes in itself. This is what Christians need to look more towards. There is one Lord, Jesus Christ, who is our core.”

Fulk also said that other churches in the community and across the state have continued to send cards with thoughts and prayers as well as donations of money and hymnals.

“We greatly appreciate people’s thoughts and prayers and other donations,” he said.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.