McLean Baptist Church, with its stunning slender white steeple that towers over the Vollintine Evergreen neighborhood, is under new management.
Members of the Southern Baptist congregation, which has anchored the southwest corner of McLean and Jackson since 1926, transferred ownership of the property this week to a suburban, nondenominational “missional” church called Living Hope.
New management, same ownership.
“Over these past few years, we’ve seen Living Hope’s heart for the neighborhood,” said McLean Baptist Pastor Glenn Hales Jr. “They serve here, they’ve moved in here, and they are committed to Jesus and to the community. We’re grateful that this building will continue to be a place where God’s love is shared and shown.”
McLean’s membership voted April 24 to give the building and its contents to Living Hope Vollintine Evergreen, one of a number of “missional communities” in Midtown — small groups of relatively young, predominantly white suburban, evangelical Christians who are moving into urban areas to be good neighbors, not do-gooders.
“We believe that we are both responsible for and called to the transformation and well-being of Memphis as well as the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the Earth,” proclaims Living Hope, begun about seven years ago by a few former members of Germantown Baptist Church. “Therefore, Living Hope focuses on particular areas of our city and world to engage in meaningful service and Gospel proclamation.”
About three years ago, a handful of Living Hope members decided to reach out to Vollintine Evergreen, one of the city’s most racially and economically diverse neighborhoods, walking distance from Overton Park and the Memphis Zoo. About 60 percent of its 12,000 or so residents are African-American; 56 percent are homeowners.
Read the rest of this entry →
