My Dream

If you’ve ever talked to me for long, you probably know I come up with a lot of business ideas—some I’d like to act upon, like a St. Louis based LOCAL business only delivery service, for example, but most are just for funsies. Honestly, if you want to start a business and can’t quite figure out your direction, hit me up, I’ve probably got ideas for you… but recently I’ve realized that as much as I want to start a little refill & resale shop, or even perhaps a fun little witchy one, what I want most is still the first idea I came up with after moving here. We’re coming up on 5 years, St. Louis. Maybe it’s time I actually speak this out to the Universe in a bigger way.

So what is it?

I’ve always wanted to buy one of the old vacant churches (preferably not falling apart, but hey, if any billionaires wanna prove they can be ethical, hit me up, I’d love to save an old building) in the city. I’m from Kentucky, and a few (emphasis on few) of the churches had a good number of outreach programs that I really believed in. I’d like to revive those (but better, ehem), as well as a weekly community-focused service… but make it all completely free of religion.

Let’s get to the weekly service later, because honestly, it going to appeal to some, but not others, and that’s fine, because no one is required (or guilted) to attend for any reason. The services will definitely be for people who miss the community of belonging to a church without the actual religion and those who are feeling lonely or alienated by our current societal structure. It’ll also be educational.

Outreach Programs

I’ve got a ton of ideas for these, so this list might not be exhaustive. Generally, we’d be here to support the community and hopefully provide at least a small number of jobs with additional volunteers (hopefully).

Donation sorting

Work with local charitable organizations to accept donations on their behalf, allowing community members to drop all their things off in one space, to be picked up and/or delivered to the appropriate organization. I think there are a lot of people who would donate more of their items instead of throwing them away if they didn’t have to research and coordinate all of those drop offs. We could also help with local short-term donation drives. We will not accept donations for big “charity” chains, of course. I’m thinking MTUG, Perrenial, City Sewing Room, etc.

New Earth Farms drop off point? I mean, why not? I’d love to even take recycling, etc, but that would be wildly dependent on the space and this feels a lot less likely. Perhaps we could have bins outside? However, we would take a wider range of items anyway due to our own thrift store, clothing closet, and creator store.

Clothes closet

Most clothes donated to us will be given away for free. Purely fast fashion pieces that offer little actual value to the wearer would also be excluded from this. Free clothes shouldn’t just mean the garbage no one wants that’s full of holes and shit. Small holes would be repaired. Donations that actually have good fabric, but are torn or damaged will be cut up and donated to City Sewing Room or Perennial. People should not have to show “proof” of needing help, either. Take what you need.

Fresh Food Donations

We would take donations (perhaps even pick up, if money/volunteers allowed) from local restaurants and distribute to locals in need. I have a few ideas for how to do this but, this is one of my newer ideas and isn’t fully fleshed out just yet.

Food Pantry

I have always hated how most food pantries operated. It’s dehumanizing to not be given any choice in the food you eat. When my dad stopped working, we were regulars at the local Baptist pantry. Nothing they gave us made a full meal. Most of it was horribly unhealthy as well. Perhaps items should be separated by meal. We could even provide instructions, maybe. How much people can take at a time and how often they can come back would probably depend on demand and I currently have no idea what that would be, because I don’t even have a specific church picked yet!

Income Streams

All proceeds would go to sustaining the organization and paying employees a livable wage. I’m not looking to profit, here, unlike some national “non-profits…”

Venue rentals

We’d rent the sanctuary out for a modest fee that allows us to further our programs without being out of reach. Weddings would probably be free for volunteers? I don’t know, it just sounds like a fun little perk. Although, if you’re planning on getting married every other year, we might have to cut you off at some point. I’ve joked about becoming a wedding officiant for years, might as well make that come full-circle. I think my dad always expected me to become a pastor, secretly—ain’t happening, but perhaps we could meet in the middle? Ha!

Stage rentals

I really want to host drag shows, plays, and concerts. If you want a stage and want to benefit the local community all-in-one go, here’s your spot.

Classroom and office rentals

If there are extra rooms that we don’t need for other purposes, why not rent it out? This all really depends on the “church,” but I love the idea of even having a co-working space.

Thrift Store

Reserved for higher quality clothing. If space allows I’d love to take small furniture, kitchenware, CDs, DVDs, you get the idea. I’d love to give people an actually ethical thrift store to shop at more often… I’m looking at you “Good”will. Go ahead and look up how much their CEOs profit and come back. I’ll wait. Yeah, they don’t deserve your money or your donations. And don’t even get me started on how they treat/pay employees, or how expensive they are now! Last time I went I bought a few items and spent close to $70. Are you kidding me?!

Creator Store

This one goes out to you, mom. Those things that are just too unique to throw away, but you have no use for… they find their home here. Basically, the creator store would be a place for artists and other crow-brained people to find unusual items to use in art pieces or fix up, etc. They would be very inexpensive, because, obviously they’re only useful to a select number of people and I could see whatever space this takes place in filling up fast. I’m the kinda person that can think of a use for almost everything. But do I have the time to make it happen? Probably not, but I struggle to part with things I know someone could use when the only other place they could go is a landfill. I’m talking old, pretty bottles, slightly broken, but beautiful plates, that really cool looking spoon that doesn’t match anything else you own, a gorgeous wooden chair that’s missing its seat, fun old board game pieces that don’t make a full set, damaged, but cool books that would work great for collages. Things like that. It would be a good way to use some of the items that are donated that other places won’t take.

Community Engagement

Weekly services

What if church and an old school assembly had a baby, but more fun? Does that make any sense? I like the idea of having a couple of songs… Perhaps just a local singer can come play a couple covers (people like to sing along, of course) and an original song to get some exposure? Then, we could have a brief overview of important goings on in the neighborhood/city. Then, a short speaker presentation about something inspiring/educational. I could see this being great for a local therapist, or professor, or I don’t know, I’m really open to ideas here. We could even have multiple if there’s enough demand, perhaps with different styles and topics.

Movie nights

Very inexpensive tickets and snacks with little up-charge and this could even be an opportunity for a food truck to come by or something, just a thought.

Board game nights?

We can literally host Magic the Gathering for all I care. I basically want this to be a thirdplace for the city. A place to actually get out and meet people, not feel stuck at home. I’ve got hella board games. The older I get, the more I prefer things like that over video games, but, hey, we could even have some of those.

Dinners

Sometimes churches have potlucks. We could do that, maybe?

Classes

We could host craft nights and other classes. Perhaps we could teach people how to repair their clothes, make their own cleaning products, small furniture repairs, all the things that corporate America has tricked us into thinking we don’t need… because they can make money off of us easier that way. Also, if we have a good fellowship hall, we could even have cooking classes!

Alright, well, that’s most of it, anyway. I’m certain I’m forgetting some things but, hey, let me know what you think… If this existed, would you come to it? Would you volunteer? Do you have any ideas for me? Money is obviously the hurdle here, but I can’t help but feel like we need this… or is it just me? In my experience, Christianity thrives mostly because they’ve fooled so many people into thinking their only opportunity for human connection and community is within church walls. Well, what if we took God out of it and just believed in our community?