MIDDLEBORO – Church in the Pines parishioners put their hearts and hammers into their latest project — one that will give them a permanent summerhouse.

Since it was founded almost 160 years ago, the church has been located in West Wareham. In 2013, they purchased 20 acres at 30 East Street in Middleboro.

“We do services [in Middleboro] every weekend from spring to fall, but we haven’t really built much there,” said Joel Gray, pastor of Church in the Pines.

The construction of their summerhouse, a pavilion that stretches 40 feet by 80 feet, began this past summer after nine years of operation on the Middleboro property.

Electricity, internet and a well are all available at the East Street site, but much of their services are done out of impermanent structures, such as tents and staging. The pavilion will be the first permanent building at the site.

The church purchased a building kit from a company in Tennessee, which included pre-cut and pre-assembled pieces needed to create the pavilion. The company offers builders, but that would have cost the church an additional $40,000.

Parishioners decided to step up and build the new structure themselves.

“At our church, we have quite a few people with construction experience,” said Gray.

“They just decided that they would save money and we would do it ourselves,” said Gray. “[It] is pretty cool because it’s a team-building sort of exercise.”

On Saturday, July 8, the construction continued with the arrival of a crane to lift seven 2,500-pound trusses onto the previously constructed wall sections. The tresses were secured with wooden pegs through predrilled holes and a few “strategically located” timber screws.

After the first truss was lifted into place around noon, the crane truck stalled, but they were able to get another crane on site quickly.

After four of the seven sections were complete by mid-afternoon, the parishioners thought about resting for the remainder of the day, but the main laborers decided to continue. All the trusses were able to be assembled onto the main frame of the building by 7 p.m.

On Sunday, June 9, services were held at the Middleboro property and many churchgoers were able to see the newly-constructed frame of the pavilion.

“We have had a lot of people in our church have weddings [at the Middleboro property], picnics, birthday parties,” said Gray. “It provides a whole other aspect of what can be done there.”

The Church in the Pines hopes to finish the pavilion in Middleboro by early August of this year.

In addition to taking photos, John Cook also provided some information and details that contributed to the body of this article.