Church buys apartment complex for missional ministry approach

[James Nored]

I found this article today entitled, Church buys apartment complex for intentional ministry. It is about a church in Greenville, NC, that had maxed out its 7 acre campus and its two worship services and three Sunday school. They still had significant building, so building a whole new campus someplace else was not an option. So instead, they bought a lower-income apartment complex that bordered the church, which also had a community center, for $1.5 million.

The pastor, Greg Rogers, began to receive some coaching on how to best use this complex. Below is the rest of the story . . . 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "[Rogers] credited the coaching sessions with the congregation shifting its thinking from how to utilize the apartments and their real estate to benefit the church, to discovering how they would enable the church to become “a missions and ministry hub for our part of Greenville.” “We want to explore ministry for residents and collaborate with others on doing ministry in this part of Greenville,” said Rogers, in his 28th year as Oakmont pastor . . .  With monthly rent at about $485, quality housing at Oakmont Square is within reach of the working poor. The church started mentoring, tutoring and Bible study ministry for children there more than a year ago. The coaching sessions helped Oakmont embrace a “go to” missions mentality rather than waiting on the unchurched to come to them. “We began to see God was already doing some things in that complex, with some residents and with our people,” Rogers said . . .  The project paired Sunday school classes which helped unify members who sometimes exist in different planes because of multiple church services. The blitz provided a one-day medical clinic, a children’s program and lunch for every resident to encourage fellowship among them and church members.   Two hundred fifty one members showed up for what Rogers called, “a day that in many ways revolutionized and cemented the shift” of his congregation’s focus from attracting to going. With the help of North Carolina Cooperative Baptist Fellowship the church is placing a ministry intern in the complex who will work with ECU and Pitt students and will plant and nurture an intentional Christian community of college students. The intern and church staff like student worker Amy Andrews and Rogers will offer the students “nurture and training to be Christian leaders, offering acts of service in the name of Christ for the good of the world,” Rogers said. He believes the apartments can offer a place for students who are tired of dorm living and who “want to be informed and intentional disciples of Jesus.” He said church members are now talking about building a community center “for everybody else” rather than a traditional Christian life center for members. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This story is a great example of a church using a missional approach to reach people--going to where they are rather than expecting them to come to them--that it likely would never reach otherwise. It is a great example of a church viewing itself as existing for the community rather than for themselves. It is a great example of a church realizing that God is already at work in the world, and that their job was to follow in his footsteps.   What do you think of this church's decision to buy this apartment complex and reach out in this way? Missional?

[James Nored]

Glenda, I'm glad that you found this story inspiring. Yes, if we are to impact our increasingly unchurched world, we must have many churches follow suit in these types of ways.

[Glenda Thomas]

I found this story so inspiring.  May God bless them in their work and all the churches that follow suit.