Little more than a year after the Rev Paul Verryn left the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg's city centre under a cloud of controversy, its growing number of congregants have pumped more than R4-million into restoring the run-down building. And they've thrown in a Mercedes-Benz for its new minister.Claims that the church was losing congregants and falling into disrepair made headlines in 2008, when more than 3,000 refugees were housed there during an outbreak of xenophobic violence.story_article_left1When Verryn left in January last year, it had fewer than 500 congregants.Soon after the Rev Ndumiso Ncombo was appointed to replace Verryn, the church closed down the refugee ministry. "The building posed a danger to everyone living here. Before we could do anything, we needed to get rid of everyone," said Methodist Church circuit steward Buntu Ntsepe.At the time about 500 refugees were still living on the premises."We helped those who wanted to return to their home country. Some were placed at various homes across the city."Ntsepe said more than R4-million had been raised to fix the building - most of it coming from its 1,500 congregants.When Ncombo took over, the church had run up a municipal bill of R3-million. The city wrote off the debt and the bill is now about R40,000 a month.Ncombo, who trained as a minister at the church 16 years ago, said it had been a "shadow of its former glory" when he took over. "Since we started the renovations, we have seen young professionals coming back. Our plan was to first create a safe, healthy environment for our church members," he said.The church now provides shelter on a temporary basis. A room with a bed is available for anyone needing shelter - for one night only.Church member Nonzwakazi Qagana said: "I can now come any time of the day for a prayer session without confronting anyone about smoking dagga. The place was dirty and had a terrible smell."We are now growing spiritually and are united as a church." But human rights activist Walter Sefiri, who represented some of the refugees, said the evictions had been badly handled and some people had been sent home against their will.Verryn, who was at the Central Methodist Church for 18 years, said he had not been back to the church , "but I have heard that the work done is spectacular"...