Radiant Church holds reopening after recovering from damage caused by derecho 3 years earlier

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) -Dr. Brian Pingel had been a pastor at Radiant Church for over three years when the derecho ripped two thirds of the churches roof off, caused extensive water damage, and in total $10,000,000 in damages.

He says the church remained resilient, and raised nearly $5,000,000 towards the nearly $11,000,000 renovation to not only rebuild what was lost but improve it.

Dr. Pingel said “I’m so excited about the fact that the people of radiant church came together during a really difficult time they they could have gone a lot of different ways but they chose to say we’re going to do this together banded together and really stuck through the really difficult times to get to this point.”

Those improvements to areas like the new kids area are helping bring back people like Caleb Shaw.

Shaw says it’s important to have a place at church for his young daughter.

Shaw said “We didn’t really want to bring her into the sanctuary and try to deal with wrangling her while you know being in worship and everything and so it’s nice that they have the space and the amenities that you know we can drop her off and know that you know she’s safe she’s gonna have a great time and we can you know be together and worship and all that.”

With the renovations complete Pingel says now they can to look to the future.

“It’s it’s an incredible relief to be able to now focus on all the things that we’re supposed to do to not just be a church in the community but to be a church for the community.“ said Pingel

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