Faye Brown, a longtime member of City Road United Methodist Church says, “Churches stay younger the more you have people in them.” Brown’s church has opened empty Sunday school rooms and fellowship areas to groups from the community that use the spaces seven days a week. The arrangement brings in revenue to maintain church space, but it has also brought new life to a 175-year-old church.
(Nashville, Tennessee)
City road chapel united methodist is adapting to the changing needs of the neighborhood.
Mac Smith: The church campus has been here since the 1800’s and we’ve grown over the years. Now that we’ve gotten smaller, it’s a lot of space for a few people.
Jim Neeley: We began a community meal, and that has continued to be a good mission, as far as I'm concerned, because the people really enjoy it. The food is good. We’re feeding 200 or 200+ actually now.
Washing machines are set up in an old kitchen to offer a free laundry service, and the gym is home to a ministry that provides free showers.
Mac Smith: Without these groups, we would be struggling, I imagine, to keep our doors open.
The daycare center became a family shelter, by renting space to Community Care Fellowship, a United Methodist Ministry, serving people in transition.
Ryan La Suer, Community Care Fellowship: “The stat that blew me away was during the year it's 313 days that church space sits empty and they allowed us to come in and build out temporary housing within their churches and we serve, we have served 330 individuals to date.”
Melissa Dixon: I was homeless on the streets for about 10 plus years. I became homeless on the streets when I had gotten into a bad relationship.
Melissa who was once a shelter resident, she’s now a house manager.
I just, you know, this is my second home away from home. Even all my days off, I still come in, you know, so, and I come in a couple hours early when I ain't even supposed to be here,
and I don't even clock in to come in and chat with everybody before I go to work.
Kimberly also came through the program. She helps families find permanent housing.
Kimberly I always dreamed of this kind of work, you know, being able to give back in some, you know, some way once I got sober and really, truly sober. And this was, you know, a great start right here.
Faye Brown: Church, you know, you used to make donations to programs and things, and we still do. That's not what I mean. But now we have the program, and this is my word in -house, so to say, that we can contribute with the people instead of just sending offerings someplace.
Church member: “See you next month, 4th Sunday.”
Tag: Community meals are served on the fourth Sunday of each month. Showers of Blessings and Loads of Love laundry service are available weekly on Monday and Wednesday mornings. For more information on these ministries, contact City Road Chapel UMC.
This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, TN.
This video was first posted on September 9, 2024.
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