KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pastor Asby Bandy stood along the fire line in the wee hours of Thursday morning watching the destruction of his church.
"It's kind of hard to say, now we don't have a building that can shake up their faith," Bandy said.
He first opened the doors of Impact Church in 2017.
"So many souls that we have reached out to, and are connected, to seeing them get baptized, seeing them give their life to God, seeing them transformed," Bandy said.
Grandview firefighters along with several other departments did their best to save the church but simply couldn't.
"It's an older building, so it's traveling through the building really quick and got real hot," Rodney Baldwin, the fire marshal at the Grandview Fire Department, said. "The ceiling collapsed, once that happens, we keep all of our people outside — it's too dangerous."
Because it's a house of worship, the ATF assisted in the investigation and have concluded it wasn't arson.
A spokesperson for the ATF says it appears the fire began in the utility room where there were several appliances.
Bandy hopes the community can chip in to help them rebuild from scratch through a GoFundMe campaign.
In the meantime, he plans to rent the Grandview community center to hold Sunday and Wednesday services for his congregation.
"They’re taking it as what it is," Bandy said. "God has a purpose for everything."
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