Only the front steps were left at Rehobeth Baptist Church in Lawley, Ala., after it was destroyed Feb. 3, 2006, during a string of nine fires set by a trio of college students. The white clapboard church building was burned to the ground for no apparent reason.

"If this was a storm or an accident, it would have been easier to deal with," Rehobeth pastor Duane Schliep says. The students: Matthew Cloyd, Benjamin Moseley and Russell DeBusk, Jr., are in prison awaiting a federal trial this November that could bring up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

The national attention following the Alabama fires also brought in donations to Rehobeth. They plan to combine those with insurance monies in order to rebuild in the spring of 2007.

Added security at the rural church will be an integral part of the new building: more lighting, reinforced glass, a monitoring alarm system and outward-opening doors. The arsonists apparently gained entry by kicking down a door that opened to the inside, Schliep says.

The need for more insurance

In addition, Rehobeth learned what most churches learn when facing their own disasters—they needed more insurance. Rehobeth's $500,000 worth of coverage on the building and contents were outstripped by the estimated rebuilding costs of $600,000. For a congregation averaging only 30 each Sunday, that $100,000 shortfall loomed large.

Tom Lichtenberger, manager of property claims for Brotherhood Mutual Insurance, one of the nation's largest insurers of churches, says underinsured churches are all too common.

"Any time churches have a partial loss, it's not that big an issue," Lichtenberger says. "But when they have a total loss, yes, they are often under-insured."

About 240 churches burned between 2001 and 2002, according to the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA). That represents a continuing decline in church arson since 1980, except for the jump in 1995-1996.

Add accidental fires to those numbers and an estimated average of 440 churches burn each year. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, some 30 percent of church fires are the result of mechanical failures. Among them are faulty wiring or improperly functioning heating systems in structures that don't meet local fire codes.

According to a 2001 report, of churches that reported fires, 65 percent had no smoke alarms and 96 percent had no sprinkler system. In church buildings that did have automatic suppression systems, the average loss per fire was cut almost in half, according to the NFPA.

Brotherhood Mutual reports an annual average of 154 of its 30,000-plus clients sustain fire damage. Most, like Rehobeth, are not prepared to deal with a total loss.

Know your coverage limits

"Every pastor, whether he has a church plant, church in the country or an urban church…needs to know how much insurance the church has," says Larry Burton, pastor of Flat Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Orlando, Ky.

Flat Rock's 120-year-old sanctuary burned to the ground in June after a wiring problem ignited a fire in the attic.

The church faced an estimated $70,000 loss with only $50,000 of insurance. They used $35,000 to pay off existing debt on a separate, new addition that wasn't damaged. Then the church used volunteers to supplement paid labor in order to rebuild by late August. Still, the church is left with a $58,000 loan to repay.

Lichtenberger says churches can be assured that they have adequate insurance by conducting periodic inventories to evaluate furnishings and make sure their coverage for their building and its contents is adequate.

Another often-overlooked safeguard is adequate maintenance, the insurance executive says. "Keep your gutters clean and inspect the roof," Lichtenberger says. "Make sure you don't have flammable rags in the furnace room. Make sure everything is up to date."

Julia Bolling got the dreaded call at 5 a.m. last June 4. Two hours earlier, someone set fire to Glenwood United Methodist Church about 20 miles northeast of Huntington, W. Va. It didn't take long for the century-old timber building to burn.

Its $30,000 in insurance was far short of the amount needed to rebuild, but thanks to community donations and fund-raisers, the church has collected another $27,000 in cash and pledges. In one instance a local man, who was not a member, came up to pastor Bolling in the restaurant where the church has been meeting and gave her $500 in cash.

Learning difficult lessons

A church fire can teach difficult lessons, most learned too late. A particularly painful one for Bolling was the need to keep back-up copies of vital records—weddings, funerals, baptisms—at a separate location.

However, the pastor says her congregation has taught her faith lessons, too. "They're puzzled, confused and hurt, but they're not angry," she says. "They said, ‘We've got to pray for whoever did this.'"

Bolling has also encouraged the congregation to grow. Once the building was gone they had no choice but to knock on doors to invite people to church in the restaurant. There attendance has risen from 10 to 22, including more young people and two new believers. The most recent was baptized in the Ohio River in early September.

"The fire has brought the whole community together," she says.