Hope Community Church saw a dream become reality recently when it purchased the old Varsity Twin Theater in downtown Columbus after nearly a year of discussion.
The church bought the 8,000-square-foot space from Malco for $180,000 shortly after Christmas, Pastor Bo Jeffares said Thursday afternoon. He expects renovations to cost at least that much or more and take a year.
The church intends to operate a coffee shop in the space during the week and hold church service there on Sundays. Jeffares said he remains committed to the idea of a neutral, unassuming coffee shop, focusing more on the coffee than on proselytizing.
There will be no signage referring to the church other than perhaps a folding sign on the sidewalk on Sunday mornings when services are being held. There will be no religious books or pamphlets scattered among the creamer and sugar packets, either. A person may walk in, get coffee and never realize it’s a church.
The 100- to 125-member congregation is meeting in the Omnova Theater at Rosenzweig Arts Center, an arrangement that Jeffares and RAC executive director Tina Sweeten said is working well.
The church moved out of its metal building on Highway 45 South by the Creekstone Chevron in December and approached Sweeten about renting space from the RAC for Sunday morning services.
The church is paying $375 a month to rent the upper and lower levels of the RAC on Sundays, Sweeten said, adding that it has been a great partnership.
The church donated a refrigerator to the RAC and is helping with cleanup and other needs.
“They’ve gone above and beyond,” Sweeten said. “It’s been great so far. We thought it would be great for them to be downtown.”
Jeffares was equally enthusiastic. One of his longtime goals has been to establish a relationship with the arts community to create a space where the celebration of music and art is encouraged, possibly offering the church space to organizations for arts or music events.
“It’s great because we’re downtown where we want to be,” Jeffares said. “It’s been really good for them as well as us. We’ve enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s good in every way.”
He plans to continue holding services there during the Varsity’s renovation.
“Right now we’re just kind of staring at it,” he said of the space. “The Malco building is a mess. We’re meeting with our architect and still trying to get the conception of it all together. We’re going to make the building good and redeem it to its maximum potential.”
Starkville architect Thomas Stewart of Architectonics will handle the project.
Jeffares said he’s cognizant of the importance of design because of the numerous historic buildings that surround it, and he doesn’t plan to rush the process.
“We’re not going to do anything until we feel good about our design,” he said.
He’s also equally involved in other details of the endeavor. The coffee will be the same coffee he’s serving at the church now — 100 percent Arabica from Georgia-based Land of a Thousand Hills, a company that supports free trade by working with farmers around the world to develop coffee plantations into sustainable income.
It’s part of Jeffares’ belief that everything the church does should have a cultural benefit.
“We’re here to make the world better and to love people,” he said. “Tie it to something that matters and do things that have more than one purpose. Most of the time, our purpose is ourselves. Jesus taught that it’s a more fulfilling and enriched life to put others ahead of yourself.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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