Dennis Johnson readily admits it: one of the reasons he and his wife, Donna, joined Bethlehem Lutheran Church (link is external) 30 years ago was the building. He loved its neo-Gothic architecture, its handsome woodwork and its majestic organ.

“It was my image of what a good Lutheran church should look like,” Johnson said of the stately structure in the historic Heritage Hill district of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

His image of a good church, however, turned out to be far from where this now 142-year-old congregation decided it needed to go. Today, Bethlehem’s new home looks nothing at all like a traditional church.

It is a nondescript former post office maintenance garage, set in the city’s gritty Heartside neighborhood of soup kitchens and lost souls. Johnson used to drive his children through Heartside to see how “the other half” lived. He never imagined he’d end up worshipping there, in a building right next to a homeless shelter.

Read the article “A Grand Rapids Church Chooses People Over Historic Space” on faithandleadership.com.