Our parish in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, by no means imagined buying the property subsequent door, a family-owned grocery retailer, and persevering with its lease. But that’s what occurred in 2021.
On the afternoon earlier than our month-to-month sacristy assembly in January 2021, I obtained an sudden e-mail from an area realtor: the property adjoining to our church was on the market. It was dwelling for almost 70 years to a neighborhood grocery retailer.. The query was, had been we thinking about shopping for?
This easy query launched St. Paul’s right into a three-month season of prayerful, parishwide discernment, which the truth is did end in our buy of the property and the continuation of the grocery retailer’s lease. However much more, our parish’s sense of identification, vocation, and mission had been shaped as we thought-about foundational questions: Who’re we? What items has God entrusted to us? How is God calling us to steward these items for the sake of Christ’s kingdom? This discernment turned the muse for our 2021 strategic plan, our revised mission assertion, and our rising identification as a instructing parish.
Based within the Fifties, Jr’s Foodland has a buyer base that has spanned 4 generations. The property was owned by the H.G. Hill Firm, and was leased over the a long time to a number of household grocers. With deep roots within the space, the present enterprise homeowners, Andy and Susan Haynes, took over the lease greater than a decade in the past. “We’ve clients who’ve been coming to us for years from our hometown of Unionville,” Susan mentioned. “They carry their coolers and replenish on their buying journeys.”
Our church had questioned whether or not sooner or later we’d add the property to our campus. Within the Nineteen Nineties, the congregation and diocese explored if the land could be a part of a plan for future parking or a day faculty to serve our rising congregation.
Over that weekend in January 2021, our sacristy in a short time decided to make a suggestion. We’re grateful for the board of the H.G. Hill Firm who accepted our supply, which was considered one of a number of. As soon as our supply was accepted, we had 90 days for due diligence concerning the property, whereas additionally partaking the whole parish in a prayerful, clear discernment course of.
I’m extremely happy with our sacristy and lay leaders who led us in a prayer-steeped, multi-layered, broadly participatory discernment course of, together with:
- Six prayer conferences across the altar.
- A sacristy retreat using Dale Carnegie’s mission and imaginative and prescient discernment workouts.
- Three discernment questions tailored from Jim Collins’s Good to Nice and the Social Sectors, which formed our introspection.
- 5 Christian schooling discernment boards, throughout which we labored to acknowledge the guts of our character, the items God has uniquely given us, and the distinctive calling God has positioned on St. Paul’s.
- Three pages of FAQs that grew to 5 pages as conversations progressed.
- Seven city corridor conferences, in particular person and on-line, throughout which we heard from voices throughout the parish.
- Greater than 12 parishioners donating their skilled experience.
- 16 sacristy conferences, Govt Committee, or Parish Discernment Committee conferences.
- 293 Particular person parishioners engaged within the course of by way of assembly attendance, survey response, or e-mail communication.
- 745 e-mail addresses to which property discernment emails had been despatched.
Because the parish discerned collectively, we famous that with the closing of a close-by chain grocery retailer, Jr’s Foodland is the one supply of high-quality groceries for this confluence of three neighborhoods. We discovered later that about 10 p.c of the purchasers is walk-in visitors coming from the college, the traditionally Black, and the downtown neighborhoods which can be served by the grocery retailer. One aged gentleman at checkout confirmed his custom-cut order of thick-sliced bacon, which he mentioned has been his breakfast “for almost 80 years.”
We discovered that Jr’s Foodland is Murfreesboro’s solely independently owned grocery retailer. We discovered later that it’s the epitome of a household enterprise. Andy’s sister Beth is the Jr’s retailer supervisor, and Andy and Susan’s daughter Emma serves as private assistant for the enterprise. Sons Zach and Luke assist lead the household companies, and Zach’s farm enterprise is the shop’s sweet-corn provider within the summertime.
The turning level for me was the second when, in considered one of our city corridor conferences, a matriarch of the congregation lastly spoke. “It appears,” she mentioned, “that we’re speaking about doing one thing now we have by no means completed earlier than. Previously, now we have all the time bought properties to satisfy St. Paul’s wants. For the primary time, now we’re speaking about buying a property for the sake of our neighbors.”
In the long run, the sacristy voted to buy 323 E. Predominant Avenue. It was a sobering determination, and never unanimous. Popping out of the pandemic, it felt dangerous. However it’s proving to be a supply of blessing, each to our neighbors and to St. Paul’s. The lease totally pays for the prices related to the property, and sooner or later might be a income. We really feel that God has been excellent to us, going out forward of us and asking us to belief and observe.
Anna Stewart, our regular and sensible senior warden on the time, wrote to the congregation:
The chance to buy 323 E. Predominant St., the Jr’s Foodland property adjoining to our church campus, was a once-in-a-lifetime and wholly sudden alternative that arose in early 2021. Whereas earlier property purchases had been made primarily for the wants of our parish, the choice to buy this property was made as a way to serve our downtown group the place our church is actually rooted. Our Sacristy listened to you, sought God’s will, and made a mission-driven determination to buy.
For the foreseeable future, that mission is easy: to take care of a grocery retailer for our group. Whereas the monetary particulars had been essential issues on your Sacristy through the discernment course of, we additionally prayed to listen to God’s will for this property and the way forward for St. Paul’s. We’ve discovered by way of this course of that we’re a congregation looking for to make Jesus actual to our group, to evangelize, to assemble, and to take care of our brothers and sisters round us.
So the best way we expect and speak about this property, this buy, whether or not inside our parish or inside the bigger group, is essential. To our church, this property just isn’t merely an acquisition or an area for future parking. This can be a household enterprise which employs our city’s residents and gives our neighbors with entry to recent meals. This can be a mission-focused growth of St. Paul’s affect in our group. With the choice to buy 323 E. Predominant St., we belief that God is guiding us, as we search to develop God’s kingdom in downtown Murfreesboro.
The Rev. Kristine Blaess, DMin, is rector at St. Paul’s Church, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She spent her first decade of ordained ministry in rural Idaho serving congregations in majority LDS communities. Her doctoral work emerged from her need to assist congregations flourish as their leaders develop ever deeper as disciples and disciplers of Jesus Christ.
