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by Sibley Fleming     Added May 20, 2009

As published in Worship Facilities, May/Jun 2009

A Vision of Community

There are two stories to tell when it comes to the building of Rock Bridge Community Church in Dalton, Ga., population 35,000. One is that of a remarkable $5 million adaptive reuse of two historic buildings—the WWII Wink Theatre, where the main worship services are held; and an old Model-T Ford dealership that has been converted into a cozy third space with a Starbucks’ style coffee bar, booths, sofas and informal worship area.

The second story, and perhaps the most important, is that of Pastor Matt Evans’ vision to reach the unchurched. He and his wife Beth are both natives of Dalton. Both moved away. “When we got married after Sept. 11 we were really just praying about where God wanted us, and we really sensed him calling us back to our home town to start a different kind of church,” Evans recalls.

“We wanted to start a new church that really focused on people who had given up on church or had never tried church. We were just interested in being a church in the community and trying to reach out, de-emphasizing tradition and religious things, and just emphasizing the truth of the Bible and the truth of Jesus Christ,” Evans says.

Taking that approach, Evans has grown his modest flock of 25 in mid 2002 to an expansive congregation of 2,000 in just six and a half years. The town’s historic Wink Theatre became the church, a building without a steeple, but one that “still has a sense of character and history and awe.”

When Evans was growing up in Dalton, the downtown was always dead. Today there’s been a resurgence; the streets and sidewalks have been redone, and there’s been a big push by the city to get merchants and people back downtown. “Our church fits into that community and our church can hopefully enhance that process,” says Evans.

Building the Vision

In 2002, Rock Bridge rented the Wink, which had just undergone a fresh renovation. Then in 2004, the church purchased the building. It wasn’t long before they began looking for more space. In January 2007, North Lima, Ohio-based design-build firm Cogun was brought in as a project consultant and contractor.

The firm took an integrated project delivery approach from the start. In short, they brought in the architects and other consultants early in the process, including Design 2020, Third Place Consulting, Living Stone Architecture and others. They worked with Generis on the capital campaign side.

“We found a company in Cogun that helped us think through the challenges of being a downtown church,” says Evans, “and how to use the buildings downtown to fuel and facilitate ministry.”

“[Integrated project delivery] is how you create a holistic solution for the church,” affirms Bryan Miles, project consultant with Cogun. The total project ended up encompassing two city blocks. Already completed is Stage 123, the third place/coffee bar that was created in the former Ford dealership building across the street. The space has seating for up to 500 people and the services are broadcast on a life-sized video screen.

A third, long and narrow building next door to the Wink was purchased and will be used as a corridor to connect the church to yet another building, which is currently being built from the ground up, the Rock Bridge Ministry Center. It will house the children’s ministry, small groups and volunteer headquarters when it opens later this year.

“Unlike a lot of times when we start with a blank slate or a pure, white canvas when we started designing, we really had to get to know them and how they did ministry and how much they wanted to help revitalize downtown,” says David Dial, president of Living Stones Architecture based in Charlotte, N.C.

The concept worked, says Dial, “because the church was trying to integrate back into the surrounding neighborhood, not making the neighborhood integrate into them.”

Buildings usually get in the way of ministry, notes Dial, and set up fences. Today, the booths that line the periphery of the Stage 123 worship space have become popular for small lunch groups and others out in the community. For instance, says Dial, the historic board of downtown Dalton met in the space recently.

The architectural firm has done similar projects for other churches, who also wanted to revitalize their downtown areas. “We call it the ‘field of dreams’ syndrome, where some churches think if they build something, then the community will come and use it. Rock Bridge already was part of the community,” Dial notes.

Living Stones brought in another consultant, Third Place Consulting based in Birmingham, Ala., founded by Michael Trent, a former coffeehouse owner and self-proclaimed “idea engineer.” Trent bought to the design process his understanding of the relationship between coffee and business and church.

“That’s [the] special spot the church has to be able to understand,” explains Trent. “I know what it’s like to be a church bartender and to stand behind that bar and to be able to deliver drinks properly, in the right amount of time, in the right attitude and be able to build relationships with people,” he says. “Too often what people were doing was throwing equipment on countertops.”

Equipment alone does not make a coffeehouse make. Third Place worked on the vision and concept with the architect to layout the space, as well as to ensure that all systems such as electrical, plumbing and water were adequate. Once the café was completed, Trent returned to help Rock Bridge get the café up and running. The operations phase included helping the church staff the coffee shop and train volunteers on equipment, products, menu, sound systems, even what pastries to buy.

“If you can give people an excuse, an environment that makes it comfortable for them to come early and stay late, and hang out with each other, coffee has that slow-down stickiness factor that gives them an opportunity to do that,” says Trent.

The comfortable feeling of a kitchen and a living room is further enhanced by audio, visual and lighting. That’s where Design 2020, a full-service audio, video, lighting and acoustical design consulting firm based in Harrisburg, N.C., came in.

The firm began the process by detailing the church’s capabilities and volunteers. “We’ll design control systems based on how experienced they are,” says Paul Henderson, principal of Design 2020. The firm designed a sound system for the sanctuary and also a video system, which the church used while Stage 123 was under construction.

Audio for all 1,100 seats is provided by a pair of McCauley line array loudspeakers and a Yamaha digital audio console. Design 2020 also implemented a broadcast video system using Panasonic cameras and switcher, supplemented by a new lighting design featuring ETC fixtures.

By using some existing equipment from the Wink Theatre, Design 2020 was able to save up to $60,000 on the project cost. The video system now connects to Stage 123 by fiber optic cable and has TiVo-like capabilities. Even as the sermon begins at the Wink Theatre across the street, people at Stage 123 do not have to synchronize the timing of the start of the sermon. While Stage 123 has its own band, the sermon comes from the Wink.

“When he starts preaching it gives them a much better sense of realism so they’re more connected to how he would look in the Wink space,” explains Henderson. “They get a high-def version of Matt at stage level to scale at Stage 123.”

Keeping it Together

While Rock Bridge has a large paid staff, one of the focuses of the church is volunteerism. Other than ordering supplies and doing maintenance, for example, the coffee shop is run by volunteers. There is a technical director on staff to manage the audio, video and lighting, says Evan, but the technical director has a large team of volunteers to run the equipment under his supervision and training.

“That kind of goes with all of our ministries,” says Evans. “We usually have a staff person that oversees the ministry, but then they go and equip and empower and encourage volunteers to participate in and serve the ministry.”

So far, the formula has been effective. The church has drawn a diverse group of people by age, socio-economic and ethnic background “as well as all walks of life spiritually in terms of where they are in their walk with God,” says Evans.

Rock Bridge is fulfilling its mission of reaching the unchurched. Evans sites as an example one woman who refused to attend church with her husband. “He said if it were at the Wink Theatre, would you go there? Because she grew up in Dalton, and knew the theater, she agreed and she came and became a Christian and is now on the church staff.”

Because the church’s spaces are multipurpose, Rock Bridge has been able to host many events for the community—from an annual youth event to business meetings, and recently two funerals for prominent people in Dalton. When the churches called and asked to use the space, Rock Bridge said yes. “So I think we’re showing the community that we’re here for them and that we have a facility that is here for the community,” Evans closes.

Sibley Fleming is an Atlanta writer and author of several books including How to Rock Your Baby. She has been named Georgia Author of the Year and has been recognized for outstanding writing by the National League of American Pen Women.

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