As Church Begins Rebuilding Collapsed Sanctuary, Its Pastor is Thankful for God's Many Blessings

SAN ANGELO, TX — The roof to the sanctuary of the Victory Christian Center Church, 1620 Sunset Dr., collapsed May 25. “At 10:47 a.m.,” said Dr. Jerry Roach, senior pastor at the non-denominational Christian church. He remembers the morning when he was alerted of the roof collapse vividly. It was the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend and no one was inside the building when the calamity hit. Thankful there were no injuries, Roach said, “If it was going to collapse, it did it when no one was here. I believe God protects the righteous.”

God’s protection of the righteous is a central theme in Roach’s preaching. In his 2015 book, God Our Refuge, Roach describes how God protects his believers. That protection was revealed in many ways during Roach’s struggle with the roof collapse, he believes.

What may have caused the collapse, Roach explained, were the high winds from a storm that occurred about a week earlier. The wind damaged the roof in unseen ways. Straight-line winds approached 90 mph. Roach and his engineers believe the high winds should have ripped the roof completely off, but it was too large and heavy. Instead, the winds shifted a few of the trusses underneath the roof, causing high stress to be applied on some trusses in an unequal way. Eventually, on May 27, one of those overburdened trusses failed and that was the catalyst for a domino effect of successive truss failures making the roof collapse.

“It started near the front of the sanctuary and moved back,” Roach said.

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Above: The day of the collapse. (LIVE! Photo/John Basquez)

Roach is thankful to God not only that no one was killed or injured, but also that the church had the proper insurance to repair and replace the sanctuary with a brand new structure. Preparations for building the new sanctuary were underway Thursday morning when an excavator was seen tearing down the rest of the damaged sanctuary. Roach said the church was designed with a modular scheme so a roof failure on one part, for example, does not necessarily affect the roof or structure on connecting parts of the Victory Center.

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In place of the former sanctuary that was approaching 20 years old, Roach said he is using the same architect and engineers to build a stronger, better sanctuary because this time it will be constructed over a of steel frame.

The plans are already complete, he said. Two things are going to slow the reconstruction. First is in this growing economy, steel is difficult to procure. Second, Roach needs to finalize the permitting process at City Hall. On the latter, Roach is hopeful it will not take too long.

The design of the new building will be very close to the old look. “We’re just going to add a few more electrical outlets,” Roach said with a grin. And there will be very large piers buried next to the existing slab for the sturdy steel frame, he said.

When the steel arrives, construction will begin, he said.

Roach, who earned his D.D.S. at Baylor in 1971, practiced dentistry in San Angelo for many years. He was named Dentist of the Year by the Texas Dental Society in 1977. During his successful dental career, he earned an MA, SPTh D and Ph D and started a concurrent career as a pastor and Biblical historian.

The Victory Christian Center Church is ordained through the Victory Fellowship of Ministries in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In San Angelo, Roach said his church has about 300 members in the congregation.

The total cost to demolish the old and build the new sanctuary will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $700,000, he said.

Roach said the building was 100 percent debt free and had been paid off for about five years. Added to that is the blessing of having good insurance. All examples of God’s protection, he said.