For more than 70 years, the Lakeview Moravian Church has stood on “the Triangle” on Tulane Ave. in Madison, Wisconsin. Over the years, it has offered not only a church sanctuary, but space for the community to come together. And by the time you read this, that church building will no longer be there.
Taking its place will be new construction that creates the Eastmorland Community Center & Workforce Housing initiative, an $8.5 million redevelopment project that includes a new 6,800 square foot community center and affordable housing.
And through this process, the Common Grace congregation—a combined congregation that resulted from the joining of the Lakeview Moravian and Zion Lutheran congregations in 2021—will have a new place to worship while building community in their Madson neighborhood.
‘Get to know your neighbors’
The Lakeview Moravian Church was founded in 1953 to serve the then-growing Eastmorland neighborhood in Madison. Over the years, the congregation flourished and grew, but over the past few decades, attendance and membership declined.
About 10 years ago, the congregation began opening up their building more to better serve—and engage with—the neighboring community.
“When I began my pastorate here, I visited with the founding pastor, Bishop Milo
Loppnow,” says the Rev. Staci Marrese-Wheeler. “He gave me some very important advice that we follow to this day: ‘Get to know your neighbors.’”
With the agreement of the Lakeview congregation, she began inviting neighborhood groups to use the space, including a preschool, theatre groups, music teachers and more.
In addition, Staci joined with clergy from Madison-area mainline churches to talk about the assets each had, how to utilize them better and how they could work together to do things in the community that none of them could do on their own.
One of those churches – Zion Lutheran (ELCA) – was facing similar issues with declining attendance and an aging building. Leaders from both congregations met and agreed to the idea of Zion selling its building and the two congregations meeting at Lakeview. The two formally joined together, forming the Common Grace congregation, in 2021. (you can read more about that in the Issue 5, 2021 edition of The Moravian)
Shortly thereafter, Common Grace established the Eastmorland Community Center, a new non-profit focused on community access and outreach. Today, the Common Grace building hosts not only the congregation but several other tenant partner organizations and many community groups.
An aging building
But the building itself was experiencing a broad variety of maintenance issues—a flooding basement, difficult accessibility, roof leaks and aging heating and cooling systems—that drained resources and limited its ability to serve the community.
“Lakeview is a simple building, predominantly cinder block and brick,” says Staci. “And with its issues, our board was saying, ‘What are we going to do with this building?’”
Thinking bigger, the board made the faithful decision to try something different. Instead of dumping money into fixing a declining building, the congregation developed a broader vision that would meet the congregation’s needs while expanding community access and partnership.
At the same time, they thought to address another key community issue: affordable housing. Like many cities, there is a shortage of affordable housing in the Madison area.
Combining these two ideas opened up whole new avenues for the future.
A new initiative
Working with ecumenical and local development partners, the Eastmorland Community Center and Workforce Housing initiative was created to serve both these needs. The $8.5 million effort will redevelop the land currently occupied by the Common Grace building, replacing it with a two-story community center and a three-story apartment building.
“The community center building will house community partners—one of those being the congregation that will continue to worship there—along with a fair-trade retail store, a community arts program and host many community organizations coming in on a weekly basis,” explains Staci.
“The plan also will include a 25-unit building with homes for individuals and families,” continues Staci, “that will provide much-needed stable, affordable housing in an increasingly unaffordable city.”
The rents from the apartment building will be used to offset some of the costs of the community center. “This is a very Moravian way of doing things,” says Staci. “We do good work for the community, and money flows back in from the community to do more ministry, so the ministry is maintained.”
Funding for the project is being provided in part by the sale of the former Zion Lutheran property along with support from the Northern Province, a private capital campaign and local development partners. Jeffrey Long, the Northern Province’s project management director, also offered consultation and guidance on behalf of the Provincial Elders’ Conference to help move the project along.
Making way for the new
For this project to be realized, the current Common Grace building will be razed later this summer. A final worship service in the old space will take place in late July. Building will start soon after the plot is cleared, with construction of both parts of the project expected to be complete by fall of next year.
When the project is complete, the Common Grace congregation will have a new home. The Eastmorland Community Center’s performance space will double as the worship space for Common Grace on Sundays.
“Common Grace congregation members are very supportive of this effort,” explains Staci. “My hope is that church leaders will take away a message of calling and faithfulness, how we get called into new contexts and new situations. Faith is transformative; we need to practice living resurrection. This is a resurrection model, not only a business model; it’s a focus on being the church rather than owning a building.”
Photos courtesy of Common Grace, Madison, Wis.
