SALEM, N.H. — While battling lung cancer, Bob Anderson spent hours hanging drywall, framing and whatever else he could do to prepare his church for a new chapter that starts today.
The 55-year-old Methuen man, a pipe fitter by trade, belongs to Granite State Baptist Church. He was one of several members who volunteered to get the church's headquarters at 1 Sand Hill Road ready for the 800 to 900 people expected to worship there today.
The churchgoers are not coming to Salem by choice. They were kicked out of the Tenney Grammar School in Methuen, where they had been renting the auditorium every Sunday for the last year.
The Methuen School Committee ordered the church to vacate by Aug. 31, citing complaints that the church had held an outdoor rock concert, hung a 4-by-12-foot banner, wrote "Tenney Grammar School Methuen" on its bus, and held a car wash on Route 28 — all without permission.
The eviction led church members to donate time to knock down walls to create more space at the Salem building, as well as paint and make other improvements to the facility. The renovations cost about $20,000 in materials, according to Senior Pastor Anthony Milas.
"We would have liked to stay there, but I like coming home to my mother church too," Anderson said regarding moving the services from Methuen to Salem.
Milas said the work on the church is something that would have eventually been done anyway. He said renting the school auditorium for about $35,000 a year was just a temporary fix for the church's space needs.
Over the last 12 years, the church has grown from just 80 people meeting in one building to about 2,000 people regularly attending services in four locations around the region, including 800 to 900 at the Tenney School. The auditorium in Salem only seats 175, so they needed to find a larger venue as their congregation grew, Milas said.
The Tenney School auditorium seats 1,250 people.
Granite State Baptist Church features four rock bands and lively speakers. Members dress casually and some wear shirts that say, "NO PERFECT PEOPLE ALLOWED."
"We just keep it real," said Milas, a 44-year-old married father of three. "We can raise up a generation of churches that you want to go to, not that you have to go to."
The Philadelphia native, who lives in Salem, said church leaders stay true to the Bible, but don't talk down to people.
"We work very hard to meet people where they are," Milas said. "We have a very laid back, contemporary, fun church."
Starting today, the church will have two services in Salem — one at 9 a.m. and another 11 a.m. A third service will be added on Saturdays at 4 p.m., starting next Saturday.
Methuen School Committee member Gary Marcoux previously said he was concerned about liability with the church renting space at the Tenney School. He said, to his knowledge, the church didn't have an insurance rider in place. Milas had a copy of the $1 million rider in his office at the church in Salem, and he said the Methuen School Department had it on file as well, along with the rental agreement.
Milas said the church wrote "Tenney Grammar School" on its bus to let the public know where they were located. He acknowledged that he didn't ask for permission.
"I didn't know that I had to," he said. "I didn't know that it had to be a secret hiding place."
The church used the bus to shuttle people from the parking lots at Nicholson Stadium and Timony Grammar School, down the street from Tenney Grammar School. The church needed the extra parking because so many people attend its services.
Milas said his church lets Salem and Methuen youth sports groups use its gym at 1 Sand Hill Road for free. The church also runs food collections, a pregnancy care center, a day care, a cancer support group ,and offers free counseling. It even participated in Methuen's city-wide cleanup this year, he said.
He said the church is "not even upset" about its eviction. But a lawyer who is a member of the church has contacted Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based nonprofit that provides pro bono legal assistance in areas of religious liberty.
Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the Methuen School Department and is demanding that it reverse its decision. The legal services group alleges that the School Department is violating the church's First Amendment right to equal access.
"We are alleging that they evicted the church largely because it's a church. They may have other reasons they put forth, but... the bottom line is that the school evicted the church because it's a religious organization," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
Staver said Liberty Counsel will file a federal lawsuit if the schools don't change their position.
"You cannot discriminate against a group solely because it's religious," he said. "We have to have clear assurances that the school will never do this again, not only to this church, but to any other religious organization."
Methuen Mayor William Manzi, who also serves as School Committee chairman, said the schools have not taken any position against renting space to religious groups. He said things just got out of hand with the School Committee and the church.
"I think that the rhetoric got a little heated, and the best way to deal with that is not through exchanges at the public participation podium (at a School Committee meeting), but rather through a more business-like approach that deals with negotiating the issues in contention," Manzi said.
Granite State Baptist Church is moving on, but Milas wants the Methuen schools to remain available to other churches looking to rent space.
"New England needs a lot more churches that are growing and adding value to the communities," he said.
