Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in downtown Macon is working on plans for a new sanctuary after the Macon - Bibb Planning and Zoning Commission approved the demolition of their current 128-year-old sanctuary.
They have to submit the new plans before they can start the demolition.
They want to demolish the historic building because, according to a commission report, the inside is riddled with mold, asbestos, deteriorating brick and water damage -- so much so that they say it's not safe for them to hold church there anymore.
Reverend Cassandra Howe, the minister at High Street Unitarian, another downtown church, lives up the street from Mount Olive.
She says she can relate to the people at Mount Olive because her church recently went through the same thing.
"It's exhausting. I would imagine they're exhausted... they're spiritually exhausted," she said.
The church was part of the Macon bus boycotts in the 1960s; in the 1970s it was the location for a television movie about Martin Luther King, Jr.
Some of Mount Olive's other neighbors said that the construction of the new sanctuary would be an inconvenience to them, but that they think it'll be worth it for the church.
Rev. Howe said she hopes they'll finish the renovations quickly.
"It's important for the church to have a beautiful space [and] to have a safe space to grow together as a community and grow in their holiness," she said.
Mount Olive would be the second downtown church to be demolished in the past couple years. Tremont Temple was demolished in 2014 to make way for a Dunkin' Donuts across from Navicent Health.
But, the leaders of Mount Olive are going in a different direction: they promise a bigger -- and safer -- place to worship, although they haven't yet said when they'll release new sanctuary plans.
The church's pastor, Rev. Timothy Price, Sr., did not return multiple phone calls, and no one else from the church was able to comment for this story.