Tipton man helps to save local church from closing its doors

TIPTOPN, Iowa (KCRG) - Jim McCollough of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tipton might know the church building better than his own home. That’s why he knew he had to do something to save Sunday service when the pandemic first impacted the parish.

“Just like any other small business, we struggled to maintain employees with little or no income,” he said.

Church Council Vice President, Terri Peck, says they were having to change so much about how they operated, they reached the point where no one was in the actual building for the services.

“The pastor began recording her segments at home and would splice those together with our readers and music,” said Peck.

McCollough applied not once, but twice to receive COVID-19 crisis federal money. The church was approved for both, which came out to nearly $26,000.

“That was huge and instrumental to us in order to keep our doors open,” said Peck.

McCollough says he knew the responsibility of funding the church couldn’t be put on the churchgoers, as everyone was struggling with their own challenges with the pandemic.

“To be able to ease up on folks that donate to us during that time when maybe their funds were useful towards some other struggle that they were having,” said McCollough.

But he insists that keeping the church doors open was a group effort.

“There were multiple involved in trying to help get our word out there to the community and support our parishioners.”

Copyright 2021 KCRG. All rights reserved.