By Hamil R. Harris and Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 20, 2004; Page B03

When the Rev. Betty P. Peebles and members of the Jericho City of Praise moved from a patch of Northeast Washington public housing units to a $36 million campus of buildings in Landover in December 1997, many people wondered how her congregation would handle such huge mortgage payments.

Yesterday, Peebles answered the doubters with a joyous ceremony as the 19,000-member congregation burned its mortgage after paying it in full.

"This just means that despite all that we have been through, we are still blessed and highly favored by the Lord," said Peebles, senior pastor of the church in Prince George's County.

The arena-sized church kicked off an exuberant celebration with an elaborate spectacular: Roving spotlights lighted the ministerial staff and deacons, and a rock band played as church officers, clad in white, filed in. Three cameras relayed the moment on seven giant-screen TVs. Buglers and a procession of women in white flowing robes presented two caged doves and vases of calla lilies.

That was all buildup to the grand entrance by Peebles and members of her family, many of whom serve at the church. Security guards stood by as Peebles climbed off a motorized scooter and mounted the stage with a walker, hailed as "the greatest apostle on the planet, Mama . . . Reverend."

"This is the Lord's day, and it is marvelous in our hearts," elder Barbara Colvin prayed. In the first row stood Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele.

During the ceremony, Peebles recalled the congregation's first church, a cinder-block structure in the Kenilworth section of Northeast that sat 31 people. Its first offering collected $13 in a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket.

In a testament to how far the church has come, elder Joel R. Peebles Sr. urged Jericho City of Praise members to step forward with $100 "seed money" offerings. As music blared, members waved envelopes filled with $100 -- or whatever they could afford.

God "blesses a cheerful giver," said Martha Chance, 63, a secretary in the federal government who gave $25 and promised to pay more later.

Almost four hours after the service began, Betty Peebles and others, including Ehrlich and Steele, burned the financial documents, one page at a time.

Jericho's blue-roofed campus sits in a church community that has experienced extraordinary growth in the past decade.

Nearly a dozen churches have memberships in the thousands, and several of these "mega-churches" are building multimillion sanctuaries. The day after Christmas, Reid Temple in Lanham will move its 5,000-member congregation into a $28 million edifice.

The size of Jericho's congregation and the county's growing affluence have helped the church retire its debt, officials said. So has the church's proximity to FedEx Field, allowing the church to lease several thousand parking spaces to the Redskins each fall.

Many in the congregation, though, credit Peebles.

"The key to the success of the Jericho City of Praise has been due to the relentless tenacity of the leadership," said Bobby Henry, the church's legal counsel. "Betty Peebles is literally history walking in our midst. She has literally taken a ministry, lost two key figures in her life, and yet she was able to relentlessly march toward the victory and paying for the Jericho City of Praise."

The Rev. James R. Peebles Sr., Betty's husband, organized Jericho Baptist Church as a small mission church in 1965 that was an extension of the District's Rehoboth Baptist Church. In 1967, the church secured a $7,500 loan to purchase land on Douglas Street in Kenilworth.

Two years later, the church built a 50-seat sanctuary for $31,000. The church went through several more buildings -- and opened the Jericho Christian College and the Jericho Christian Academy -- before buying 82 acres in Landover in 1995.

In September 1996, though, James R. Peebles Sr. died. Four months later, Betty Peebles' eldest son, James R. Peebles Jr., the church's assistant pastor, died after a heart attack. She became senior pastor and her youngest son, Joey, became assistant pastor.

"Churches down through time have built marvelous buildings, but the legacy that she leaves is one of a debt-free facility." Henry said. "This allows you to springboard into other ministries."