Lack of money, health challenges put plans for South Jersey church on hold

A year ago, the City of Hope Worship Outreach Center received an unexpected blessing: free land from a stranger to move the struggling congregation.

For Pastor Kenneth Applewhite it was a prayer answered that would enable him to build a new church and relocate from Atlantic City to Egg Harbor Township.

A retired Cherry Hill businessman donated the land, valued at $75,000 to $125,000 in December 2015. His only request was an invitation to attend the first service in the new church.

Giddy with euphoria by the gift, Applewhite was ready to launch a campaign to raise about $300,000 to start the building project. Or so he thought.

Applewhite suffered a serious stroke just a few weeks later, in January 2016. Only a few donations for the new church trickled in, and everything ground to a halt.

"I couldn't walk or see. I had to put the building on hold," Applewhite said in a recent interview. "I was able to get healed and keep running the church."

For now, the congregation plans to stay put in the gritty 200 block of North South Carolina Avenue, where it rents space in a storefront, he said.

After a young man was killed steps from the church on a Sunday morning in 2015, Applewhite decided it was time to move. But the church could not afford it.

Looking to sell a vacant parcel on the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township, James Horowitz decided to give it away after Applewhite made a compelling case after seeing an ad that the property was up for sale.

Horowitz gave the church the deed to the half-acre tract with no strings attached because he said it was the right thing to do.

Since then, Horowitz has had little contact with the church. Like Applewhite, he had his own health challenges - open heart surgery - and lost track of the project.

"I'm certainly disappointed, but I have no control over it," said Horowitz, 83. "I was just trying to help out."

Horowitz, who operated publishing, pool and real estate businesses, owned the land for about 25 years. The site has been periodically for sale over the years, but the location and zoning for a single dwelling made it difficult to sell, he said.

Applewhite, 55, said he hasn't abandoned his dream of building a new church in Egg Harbor Township. The land, partially overgrown with weeds, sits on a busy corner.

"We're waiting it out," Applewhite said. "It's a lot to building a church."

Atlantic City Council President Marty Small, who represents the Second Ward, where the church is located a few blocks from midtown, said the police department has tried to curb crime and hopes the church remains in the city permanently.

"There's more good than bad going on in the city of Atlantic City," Small said. "We have to keep fighting."

Applewhite, a full-time pastor, hopes to restart the fund-raising campaign with a star-studded gala on June 11 at the Sheraton Hotel in Atlantic City.

The church received about $500 in donations last year after Horowitz donated the land. The church had some items and services pledged - a building plan, bricks and legal services. Applewhite wants to build a church that will be able to hold as many as 200 people.

"I believe that he will succeed. He's doing it for the glory of God," said Chris Parker, pastor of Cliff of the Rock Ministries in Mays Landing and a childhood friend.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic City church, which has about 25 members, holds Sunday services and Wednesday Bible study, Applewhite said. A pantry provides food twice a week.

Applewhite, a former mental-health therapist and social worker, said crime near the church has eased off lately. A young woman was killed near the church in September. But the violence has not escalated as it did in the past, he said.

At the time he decided it was time for a new location, Applewhite said at least 15 people had been shot or killed on the church's street or nearby over the last nine years.

Founded by Applewhite in 2007, the church first met in Absecon, N.J., where it shared a building with another church. It relocated to Atlantic City in 2009.

On a recent afternoon, the block was pretty desolate, with only a few people milling around outside. There is a "for rent" sign in the second-story window of the building where the church is located.

"It has calmed down a lot," Applewhite said. "I'm just grateful to be alive."

To contact City of Hope, write in care of Pastor Kenneth Applewhite, 4804 Green Ash Lane, Mays Landing, N.J. 08330.

mburney@phillynews.com

856-779-3814 @mlburney