By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – A new Baptist church on State Rt. 56 north of the village is preparing to welcome a congregation.

“We’re probably a month away from phase one, where a core group will work through the winter together” preparing the Potsdam Area Neighborhood Church, said Rev. Joseph Selenski, pastor of Lifeway Community Church in North Bangor and organizer of the new American Baptist denominated church next to North Country Collision.

“In phase two, in the spring, the building will be done, so we can handle a larger crowd,” Selenski said.

There was an American Baptist congregation in Potsdam until about two years ago, said Selenski, “but they aged their way out. They left us a little endowment for a new church.”

His hope is to “bring in some new folks looking for a different way to express their faith or look at faith.”

For about a year, Selenski said, he will be overseeing an interning pastor, Doug Buchanan, “who lives in the Malone area and is an elder in my church” in North Bangor, he said.

“We’re meeting with small groups to help get organized. We’ll have traditional Sunday services and other events. That’s not set yet.

“We’ll take a ‘living room’ approach, as a strategically small church,” he said.

Right now they are working on renovations to the building, which Selenski said has been a shoe store and a convenience store.