The Rev. Shawn Smith sits in the pew as St. Paul Lutheran Lutheran Church after the sanctuary was stripped of salvagable items prior to is planned demolition later this month.

SARVER — It seems appropriate that the final worship service in the 146-year-old St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 409 Sarver Road, was June 4, Pentecost Sunday.

“Pentecost Sunday is all about moving forward as a church in the mission of the church,” said St. Paul's pastor, the Rev. Shawn Smith.

The last service started at 10 a.m. and ended at 11:30 a.m. The next day workers from Kelly Art Glass in Pittsburgh were removing the church's 12 stained-glass windows for storage and eventual inclusion in the new church as plans to demolish the old church move ahead.

“We're going to take out the pews and see how they fit in the new space,” said Smith, adding the baptismal has also been removed.

Smith said the upkeep on the old church building was becoming too expensive. Also the old church wasn't air-conditioned and its layout made it hard for the congregation's very old and very young members to access.

Smith said for the immediate future the 10 a.m. Sunday worship services will be conducted in the church fellowship hall until the new church is finished.

“We're setting up 100 chairs for now and see where we go from there,” said Smith. “We can always set up more chairs.”

Smith said the old church is slated for demolition in late June or early July depending on how soon asbestos found in the basement can be removed.

“We got Midwest Church Construction of Toledo, Ohio, a church-only construction firm to organize the nuts and bolts of construction,” said Smith.

Alan Morrison, director of client services for Midwest Church, said, “We will be subcontracting to local labor for demolition and construction.”

“I would anticipate demolition would begin in the next two to three weeks,” Morrison said, adding construction of the new 7,800-square-foot church should take 10 to 12 months.

Plans call for the new church building to be connected to the existing fellowship hall. The connecting structure will contain an entry lobby, nursery, reception area and pastor's office.

The new church's sanctuary will seat 200.

Smith said, “We're hoping if they start construction in July that it will be done sometime next spring.”

“You never know with construction, problems can arise that you have to be very cognizant of,” he added.

In the meantime, he said St. Paul's will continue to offer Sunday school and Bible study at the fellowship hall, and this summer's vacation Bible school will still run from June 25 to 29.

Smith said former pastor the late Emery Barnett started a capital campaign in 2001 that “raised a fairly substantial amount of money, but not enough to complete the building.”

Burnett's ill health sidelined building plans for a time, but Smith said steady giving on the part of the congregation and some recent significant bequests have given St. Paul's the financial means to move forward.

“It's really sad that he couldn't be here to see this,” Smith said.