At roughly 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 28,  a neighbor emerged through the doors of the Emmanuel Assembly of God church on Highland Avenue in Onset.

The Rev. Colon Wright was in the middle of the church's regular 10:30 a.m. service, even though Tropical Storm Irene had begun to unleash its wrath on the area earlier that morning.

"I'm tenacious when it comes to service," he noted.

The neighbor had frightening news: The church's bell tower was teetering and it was going to collapse.

Wright evacuated the 11 people who'd showed up for the service in the storm. Members of the Onset Fire Department responded and blocked off the area.

The inevitable happened early that afternoon. Wright calls it "the perfect fall."

"As it fell, it spun, so it didn't go through the roof," Wright said.

The steeple, instead, crashed through the church's handicap ramp and landed in front of the building, perfectly out of the roadway. No one was injured.

"We're very thankful that it didn't fall back the other way," said Wright. "It would have been in the sanctuary!"

But the damage still stings a bit.

The steeple and bell tower were original to the hundreds-year-old church. Last year, the church spent $33,000 to repair the roof and parts of the steeple, including a beam on the steeple that appears to have been the first to give out in the wind.

"We're assuming the first post that buckled was the new post," Wright explained, examining the fallen steeple on September 1 before workers arrived to provide an estimate of damage. "We'd had the work done. We were trying to be proactive."

The verdict? The Emmanuel Assembly of God suffered approximately $25,000 in damage. But Wright remains optimistic. He hopes that insurance will cover most of the repairs and that community members may be able to help.

"We're hoping that the community will rally," he said. "As any nonprofit organization, finances are always a stretch. ... With the economy, donations are down. ... But people are kind. People are generous."

Wright says he can see the positive in any situation.

"We always look on the bright side," he said. "It could have fallen through the church."

Another positive: Concerned neighbors have stopped by to ask Wright about the damage, giving him a chance to meet more of the surrounding residents.

As Wright pointed out pieces of the bell tower that he plans to keep for "mementos," a man stopped his vehicle in front of the church. His mouth dropped as he looked over the damage.

"You really came down, huh?" the man asked.

With a laugh, Wright responded: "I was preaching a sermon and I raised the roof!"

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to help the church with repairs, checks can be mailed to the Emmanuel Assembly of God, C/O Rev. Colon Wright, P.O. Box 914 Onset, MA 02558.