Our new parish house has changed the way we minister to the parish and the community. When we started exploring how to most effectively open our building and ourselves to others, we set four major goals:
- Care for, protect, and cherish our new parish house
- Help the parish embrace the space and feel at home in it
- Serve the community; practice hospitality; fill gaps
- Provide a service that people will pay for and diversify our revenue stream
We developed policies that apply to parishioners, non-profits and service organizations, as well as users hosting large catered events. Like any good host, we worked to balance security and maintenance issues with hospitality and graciousness.
The response has been very gratifying. We’ve partnered with local churches, an array of non-profits, University student and staff groups, community organizations, and the Town of Chapel Hill. We’ve had wedding receptions and rehearsal dinners. We’ve met all kinds of wonderful people.