Dunaway's Chapel United Methodist Church in Lascassas was vandalized with more than $5,000 in damages reported.
Officials said it happened sometime between Sunday afternoon and Thursday morning.
"They took a broom handle and just maliciously destroyed the doors, broke chairs, smashed out windows," Jim Overcast, pastor at the church, said.
Glass was broken all over the fellowship hall and kitchen, as well as special plates that were used during the services at the church.
There was also a catalog found in a grill outside that had been set on fire, but the sanctuary was untouched. Nothing was stolen from the church which made the paster question it was done in the first place.
"I hope whoever did it would maybe think about the pain they caused and maybe respond with an act of love," Overcast explained, adding that the church has no ill will toward whoever damaged their church.
“You can’t respond to anger with anger. The only way to respond to anything like that is with love, just like if you’re fighting fire, you wouldn’t throw more wood on the fire, you’d pour water on it. The only thing we can respond in a situation like this is more love," he said.
Dunaway's Chapel UMC has sat in the same spot since the 1800s, and since then, many generations of families have spent their Sundays in the building.
The items that were destroyed held special meanings to many of the church members.
“I would hope that they would make better decisions with their idle time," Overcast said of the vandal or vandals. "It does hurt people when you break something that belongs to someone else, especially if it has a memory attached to it.”
Police asked anyone with information about this incident or anyone who spotted anything suspicious in the area to call them at 615-904-3055.
