One of Cleveland's Largest African-American Churches Plans to Suburbanize
Cleveland's Olivet Institutional Baptist Church is a legendary institution in the Cleveland community. The leadership of the 3,000-plus member congregation of the longstanding African-American church announced plans yesterday to build a new church complex in suburban Twinsburg, located 30 miles southeast of its current Cleveland inner city location.
Apparently, Church officials were unable to work out a deal to build the new complex in Cleveland. This is a blow to the city. Major institutions, including churches, museums, orchestras, colleges and universities, government offices, and healthcare institutions, play a major role in economic development. Their role is often understated, which is a mistake.
A recent Plain Dealer article did not provide much in the way of details about why and how this decision was made. This is an important issue from an urban regional economic development perspective. It does not speak well of Cleveland's ability to hold onto its institutional treasures, which have given shape to the community over many years.
To be sure, churches are adopting new "business strategies" everywhere to retain and grow their congregations. Church memberships have declined considerably over the past two decades. Churches are trying to reinvent themselves as a way to keep existing and attract new members. Many churches are now looking to create larger complexes offering integrated religious, social, residential, and educational services.
It will be interesting to see how this situation unfolds in the near future.
posted by Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. at
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
3 Comments:
Don,
As we at URBAN PARADOXES conduct our "Vision" salons throughout Cleveland's neighborhoods we hear over and over again, "The churches have ruined our neighborhood." Several reasons are given for this view:
1. Far too many storefront churches without a commitment to doing anything about the building they are in.
2. Churches leaving their historic locations for the suburbs, or simply shutting down and vacating, without any moral concern for, or obligation to, the neighborhood they leave behind.
3. Churches building out of scale complexes and parking lots without consideration of the neighborhood. Generally speaking, most of the members come from outside of the neighborhood.
4. The last, and perhaps most serious charge, urban churches and other houses of worship, for the most part, have no real concern for the urban fabric of the neighborhood, other than growing in number. The other side of the coin, are those suburban churches who make the poor urban neighborhoods an "evangelistic mission." Sort of, to quote one lady, "Feed them, clothe them, save them, then leave them to live in hell."
Of course, there are those few churches truely seeking to serve those who live within the neighborhoods, as well as bring about urban revitalization.
In the future, URBAN PARADOXES hope to host a forum for religious leaders to discuss their role in urban revitalization, or the lack thereof.
Frank
URBAN PARADOXES
By
Frank A. Mills, at 9:57 AM
Hmmm. I'm not sure where to begin. I posted this to BrewedFreshDaily.com in hopes that other readers would have somne thoughts on it.
I think the one thing that disturbs me is that a church of 3K people is a very large community to uproot and move anywhere. What effect is it going to have on the church's community as well as the neighborhood? Is it that simple to abandon one place for another? How will the community they're moving to react?
On another level, what's going to happen to the building they're leaving behind? How much are they investing in the new facility? Is it worth it?
I can go on, but I won't. Obviously, I've got a lot of questions about it...
By
George Nemeth, at 11:52 AM
We are the owners of a 22 acre parcel of land next to the proposed Olivet Baptist Church site (54 acres) in Twinsburg. We used our life's savings to purchase this incredibly beautiful land with its lake,streams,ledges, meadows and forest. Our goal was to be good stewards and preserve this gem. What chance do we stand in fighting their deep pockets and political connections? They plan to have 3 buildings in their compound totaling 300,000 sq. feet...a worship center, life center and community center. The phased construction could take years. Imagine 3,000 people arriving in your back yard every week? I can't even imagine the environmental impact to the land and animals. The church is pressing on with a hearing on a conditional use permit on August 15 at 7:00 in Twinsburg. There are only 3 families in our little "neighborhood" but we want to fight this. If you have any connections in the media or know of an environmental group that would like to get involved, we would appreciate the assistance. I can be reached at 216.509.0011.
Much thanks, Judi
By
Anonymous, at 8:35 PM
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