By Kate Penz, communications specialist

The Payne-Maryland Project on St. Paul’s East Side, which includes plans for a community campus to house a variety of organizations and community services, including Arlington Hills Lutheran, has been called “reinvigorating,” “inspirational,” and “the first of its kind.” The innovative new building will allow Arlington Hills to become more energy efficient, hospitable, better stewards of financial resources, and it has inspired the congregation to rethink its mission.

The project began in 2005 when the building task force at Arlington Hills looked into updating the elevator. The estimated cost of the update was a few hundred thousand dollars, but with the necessary upgrades to other facilities to get the elevator up to code, the project estimates grew to $3 million.

“Investing that much money into a 65-year-old, inefficient building that no longer meets our needs seemed wasteful,” said Allmendinger, who has been pastor at Arlington Hills since October 2007. Allmendinger said never in his “wildest dreams or most imaginative hopes” did he think he would be leading a congregation into a building this innovative.

Arlington Hills considered its options. Congregational leaders approached neighborhood organizations that could also benefit from new facilities—including the neighborhood’s overcrowded and highly used Saint Paul Public Library and the Parks and Recreation Department, as well as Merrick Community Services, and Bradshaw Funeral Home—about collaborating on a project that would bring the community together under one roof.

A vision is born
Together the church, government organizations, nonprofits, and private entities envisioned a shared space that would unite the neighborhood’s various ethnic groups. St. Paul’s East Side has served as a landing place for Hmong, Karen, Latino, and East African immigrants. Homes owned by white, blue-collar families for 20-30 years now stand next to and are outnumbered by homes of immigrant families from other cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

City officials say the community campus will mean quality buildings providing better services. The surrounding neighborhood has seen disappearing jobs, crime, foreclosures, and nearly 300 vacant buildings in recent years, and residents are hoping that the project will inspire property values to rise and attract commercial development.

Making plans
Allmendinger said it feels like the project has been a long time in the making, but studies, capital campaigns, and architectural drawings are all signs that the process is moving along. A feasibility study estimated the new facility would save Arlington Hills approximately 30 percent of its current operating costs. It estimated the total cost of the project at $35 million. The city has secured $14 million for the library and parks and recreation office. Arlington Hills and the other nonprofits are in the midst of a capital campaign to raise $15 to $21 million over the course of 42 months.

The church is working with an architectural firm on the schematic design for the new space and is awaiting the illustrations that will begin to give life to the plans and engage the imaginations of church members.

Rethinking space, extending hospitality
Arlington Hills has served as a welcome center for many new immigrants for over 40 years. The Alley Shoppe, one of the church’s outreach ministries, assists some 50 families per week. “We serve the needs of folks who are just settling in, who need clothes, shoes, small appliances, and other household necessities,” said Allmendinger.

The Alley Shoppe got its name because clients are received from the alley entrance to the education wing. Clothing and household items are stored in classrooms. Clients form a line in the education wing hallway where they register and are served nutritious snacks and beverages while they wait their turn in the youth room. Allmendinger said the current facilities work, but are “pretty inhospitable and cumbersome. A large warehouse room for the actual store space would work much better.”

Arlington Hills is also home to one of the Minnesota Literacy Council (MLC) learning centers, a nonprofit, statewide organization that provides literacy services to children, adults, volunteers, and organizations. MLC also provides job skills training and would benefit from a new space designed to fit their needs.

Mixed emotions
Although the project provides ample reasons for Arlington Hills members to get excited—the ability to design a space that works for ministry at Arlington Hills today, the potential cost savings, energy efficiency, and collaboration with the neighborhood—the change doesn’t come without nostalgia.

The move summons mixed emotions for some church members. “Many prayers have been prayed here. Longtime members have participated in hundreds of worship services in the old building, and it might be hard for some to leave it behind,” said Allmendinger.

Yet, after several congregational votes throughout the process, the consensus among members was always in favor of proceeding. In an effort to preserve history and maintain continuity, the building task force is looking at the cost of moving the organ and some of the stained glass windows from one building to the next.

Missional redevelopment
In addition to the physical changes at Arlington Hills, the congregation is also rethinking its mission. A team is working with the Rev. Paul Erickson, assistant to the bishop for evangelical mission, and the Rev. Susan Miller, assistant to the bishop for congregational life and mission, as a part of the Mission Renewal Process.

Congregations participate in an ongoing process that facilitates growth in clarity of vision and purpose, openness to change, and an understanding of shared leadership. The basic practices that undergird this work are prayer, biblical reflection, and community discernment.

“We want to be purveyors of hope in the community,” said Allmendinger. In order to do so, they remember the core questions: What is God up to? What is our role?

From FaithLink, July 2010