Shingle Bells: Strangers Band Together to Save Church

Dec. 22, 2009 — -- For the last couple of years, parishoners of the much-loved Detroit Pilgrim Church had to put up with rain and snow falling straight into the sanctuary through a hole in the roof.

But that was before two men, one a pastor and the other a bestselling author, joined forces in a pledge to get the church fixed. They drew support from strangers the world over. Now, just a few weeks after repairs began, worshippers have reason to celebrate -- this year they'll have a Christmas service in a warm, dry sanctuary.

While many believe a church should give worshippers a direct line to God, a gaping hole in the ceiling was probably not what the founders of Pilgrim Church had in mind when it was built in the late 1800s. It was first named the Trumbull Avenue Church.

Once the largest Presbyterian church in the Midwest, the building fell on hard times along with the surrounding neighborhood. Signs of decay showed clearly. The church, once so vital, had become a burden to its dwindling congregation.

In 1992, the Presbyterian congregation gave the building to Pilgrim Church I Am My Brother's Keeper Ministry, but keeping the crumbling church alive would prove a challenge.

"Our church was made fun of," pastor Henry Covington told "Good Morning America." "The raggedy church with the hole in the ceiling."

The hole was big enough that snow, rain and wind coming into the sanctuary made it almost unusable. There was no money to fix it.

Despite the hole in the roof, the church filled a hole in the community. It was a home to those without homes -- offering its gym to those in need of a place to sleep, its kitchen to those in need of a meal and its prayers to those in need of hope.

"If you had come here the same day that I had come here and seen this whole sanctuary empty because nobody could sit in it... over to the left was a plastic tent and people huddled with their coats on, trying to pray and stay warm," said local columnist and author of "Have a Little Faith" Mitch Albom.

Click here to read an excerpt of Albom's book.

The sight made an impression on Albom.

"At that point I don't think you ask what faith are they," he said. "Are they the same as me? You just see these people need help. And that's when I told Henry [Covington], 'You won't have another Christmas like that.'"