Church of the Way is in the process of renovating its chapel on Congress Street in a design  inspired by the Old West.

“In the old days, you go out to those old mining towns, you’d have four buildings that look just like this,” Church of the Way Pastor David Fortenberry said. “One would be the mercantile, one would be the sheriff, one would be the saloon and one would be the church. They’d just have a cross on it. That’s kind of what we’re going to do. We’re going to paint all these bricks to match, put a cross on the top, and give it an old western look.”

“We’re not affiliated with any denomination,” said Fortenberry. “We’re just a Biblically-based Christian church.”

Fortenberry said he’s had plenty of experience with construction.

“I’ve had a building project everywhere I’ve ever been,” he said. “Some from little-bitty to million dollar projects.”

The project is almost entirely built on volunteer work and donations.

“[We’re] all volunteers, except Mr. Donald [Porter], he’s our overseer,” Fortenberry said. “But he’s really a volunteer. Anybody who can put up with us has to volunteer.”

About 10,000 board-feet of cypress was donated to the church by Conner House from Natchez, according to Fortenberry, when a church member asked if the church could buy lumber from him.

According to volunteer Charles Crane, the building was originally a bicycle shop built in the 1960s. Eventually the building was a Western Auto, then a WIC center, then finally a funeral home before being bought by the church a couple of years ago.

Church of the Way was organized in January of 2012. Fortenberry said they met for 18 months at the Woodmen of the World building before buying the new chapel.

According to Fortenberry, Church of the Way financially supports missionary work all over the world, including well-digging in Africa. He also said they’re also involved in doing work in Jackson.