The Downtown Church, known throughout Springfield for clever street signage on the corner of Walnut and Jefferson, has a mission that goes far beyond eye-catching sayings.
The large church situated in the middle of downtown Springfield has long been known for its prominent architecture, but a lesser-known pink house sits on the church property. As the congregation grows, leaders have decided to renovate that property and turn it into an outreach center where local nonprofits can meet.
Organizations such as Good Dads and the Child Advocacy Center cannot afford the rent for meeting spaces in the downtown area. The Downtown Church hopes the pink house can become an affordable meeting space for nonprofits to rent in order to better serve the downtown community in need.
Rev. Lori Lampert of the Downtown Church said the congregation aims to fill gaps, “What does this community need? And in turn, what does the world need from us?” Lampert asked. “That's one of the big things we're saying to Springfield, hopefully with our words and deeds, that you are important to us and we want to be good neighbors and invest in you in whatever way we can do that.”
This project has been able to take place due to savings set aside from past congregations that have occupied the space. The Downtown Church was independently founded in 2019 after splitting from Wesley United Methodist Church in southwest Springfield. Quickly after the church became independent, the pandemic hit, and efforts had to be diverted from restoring the pink house to assisting neighbors affected by COVID. “Taking care of a piece of property was not the issue right then,” Lampert said. “It was taking care of people that are being affected by COVID and the other divisive things in our country.”
Now that the community is emerging from the pandemic, the church is able to institute its outreach missions.
The space has evolved from a parsonage, into various church offices and classrooms, and currently sits vacant. Lampert hopes that a year from now, the house will be busy and vibrant once again. “We inherited this building when we came down here, and we stand on the backs of a lot of saints that invested in this property, invested in this place, invested in this town. And we believe we're stewards of it for the next generation.”
This idea comes after various Springfield area nonprofit programs cited a lack of affordable meeting spaces in the downtown community.
“There's lots of need for inexpensive or free meeting spaces. It's expensive to meet in downtown Springfield,” Lampert said. “How do we help provide that opportunity within this existing space so that organizations can benefit from what we have.”
The Downtown Church leaders acknowledged many organizations are doing similar outreach in Springfield, but leaders believe the pink house will provide unique resources to the downtown population in need. “I think it's going to be mostly a place for nonprofits that are assets to the community to have a below-market place to call home,” Lampert said. “It's investing in Springfield. It's really investing in it both in the property itself, the upkeep, the involvement of nonprofits.”
Collaboration with the Drury Architecture Program
In order to make the house useful once again, the Downtown Church recruited the assistance of the Drury University Architecture program. Through this collaboration, the architecture program has given the church guidance on what can be done. Currently, the house is unusable, with certain areas on the verge of falling apart. Drury architecture students have created concepts that will bring the house back to life.
Lampert has given current students the opportunity to design their visions of plans for the space.
“It's something that is so historic and it's been there for so long,” said Meredith Wilke, a Drury senior and project designer. A project goal is “being able to maintain that [historic] aspect of it, but also revitalize it and make it serve the needs of the community as they change and evolve.”
The partnership with the Drury architecture program is not the first of its kind, but it is unique for students to be able to craft a project with the intention of providing services for those in need.
“It was a no-brainer for the church to take that partnership on because we're getting creative, outside-the-box thinking from people that are not our generation,” said Brian Mattson, Director of Worship and Operations for the Downtown Church. “If we want to think long term, we have to think differently. These are kids that are thinking about things differently.”
“We're looking at the church, we're also looking at downtown, and we're also looking at trying to target a young demographic like us,” Jillian Kirchner, Drury senior and lead project designer said. “So it's ‘What do we see that the church needs?’ We're working toward making that connection. Their mission statement is a place where Christ and the community intersect. We're really trying to focus on what that can actually become.”
The pink house project has been three months in the making, and the architecture students hope to accomplish more to make the house as useful as possible.
“I think it's going to benefit the downtown area most because it's a lot of creating public spaces that are much needed in the area that the church can bring people into and then make those connections,” Wilke said.
The pink house with potential is still a work in progress, but the Downtown Church hopes to open the doors to serve the community as quickly as possible. The Drury architecture program presented a final version of the project with the Downtown Church congregation on Monday, October 24, and will have final design renderings to follow the meeting.
