MIAMI - An over 100-year-old church in Miami's Overtown neighborhood has been saved thanks to the areas Community Redevelopment Agency.

Churches are usually where people go to be saved. This time it was the church that needed saving and it was city officials who used their power and their dollars to do just that.

James McQueen is the director of the South East Overtown Park West Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). He says, "You have to maintain your history. This church, from the time Stepford Johnson with the pastor, up until recently was a beacon of hope for the people in his community, a place where they came to rally."

 McQueen says the St. John Institutional Missionary Baptist Church use to be his playground growing up.

The church sits in the heart of Overtown on 3rd Avenue and North West 13th Street.

So when the church fell into financial hardships due to a bad mortgage taken out by a now former pastor he and Miami Commissioner Christine King worked together to 'save' it.

King says, "Well, this is one of the oldest churches in this community, and it was established in 1911. And to lose this church would be a setback for what the Overtown CRA is trying to accomplish with revitalizing this community."

King she adds, "This property would have sold to developers or whoever, who don't care about the community and the uniqueness of this neighborhood."

Three million dollars is what it cost to save the parking lot and the church's two nearby buildings.
The church itself was never at risk except one of the entrances is through that parking lot.

McQueen says the future of Overtown depends on keeping its history preserved. "I remember this as a vibrant community, and I watched it destroyed. And now and now, if you look around you can see that Overtown is on its way back. And within the next less than a year, we will have target Burlington Coat Factory, all these all located within walking distance at a residence of Overtown."

The church will have to pay the three million dollars back and the CRA says they will work with church administrators to make sure they can meet the terms.