What happens when a church asks questions about the neighborhood and their physical relation to the neighborhood before undertaking a major renovation? In Episode 6 of Season 4, Eric and Sara Joy talk with Rob Kaple, lead pastor of Grace Midtown in Atlanta, about how their church renovation became a defining moment for their church's posture towards the surrounding neighborhoods.
In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy interview Rob Kaple of Grace Midtown Atlanta. The church came on their radar when they noticed in Public Square, an online publication of the Congress for the New Urbanism, that the church had won a merit award for good design in the Block, Street, and Building category of CNU's 2021 Charter Awards. It is somewhat unusual to see a church featured in an official publication of the CNU and even more unusual when the church is an evangelical mega church. So their interest was piqued. After a little investigating they connected with Rob Kaple who is the Lead Pastor of Grace Midtown and had a front row seat for that building project.
In this interview our attention is turned to practical examples of placemaking. Rob provides listeners with a compelling story of how he and his congregation went through a paradigm shift as they considered how to best utilize their facility to support their mission. Their facility is located at the intersection of an upscale neighborhood and an underinvested neighborhood. At first they considered a complete tear down and rebuild of a new building that would be oriented towards the upscale neighborhood. But they decided that it was more in line with their mission to repurpose the main building and to orient their church towards the underinvested neighborhood.
This initial decision led to additional decisions which allowed them to leverage physical connections to their neighborhood. And after they had begun their project, they made the happy discovery that the famous Atlanta Beltline would be coming right past their front door, making the church easily accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists. This was a fun conversation and an unusual story to be sure. Our hope is that this kind of story will become less unusual as churches learn the value of placemaking and taking the physical context of their neighborhood more seriously.
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
A new kind of church, in a former warehouse on CNU Public Square
Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City by Timothy Keller
Will Mancini on Upper Room and Lower Room Thinking
For a Kunstleresque smackdown on Atlanta read “Atlanta: Does Edge City Have a Future” in The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition by James Howard Kunstler
Kronberg Urbanists + Architects
Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:
- Embedded Church
- Mixed Use
- Border Vacuum
- Redlining
- Placemaking
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative