NEW BERN — The pastor had promised if the church raised money for a new roof, she would preach from it.

Pastor Charlene Pierce Guider made good on the promise last weekend, delivering her sermon from the roof of Trinity United Methodist Church in New Bern.

Guider spoke from the top of a ladder at the Sunday service.

Members raised more than $18,000 for the roof and work on the parsonage.

Board chairman Chuck Gilgo told media outlets there was no money in the regular budget for the roof. The church was built in 1964 and never had new shingles. But there were some leaks on the inside, Gilgo said.

Guider said she first thought about preaching from the steeple roof and did a trial run in a bucket truck and decided on the lower approach.

"That was some experience with fear," she said.

"The ministry is really a higher calling but I never imagined it was to this extent," Guider told church members seated on lawn chairs or blankets on the church lawn.