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Wednesday, April 21, 2010
News Eastland Mall closes — so, what does that mean for Renovatus Church?
Posted By Cheris Hodges on Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 2:29 PM
When pastor Jonathan Martin of Renovatus Church gave his first sermon at Eastland Mall in October, he knew there was a chance that the mall wouldn’t be the permanent home of his non-denominational church.
"We know the [mall's] reputation is bad, but this church is for liars, dreamers and misfits. This mall has been forgotten, dismissed and overlooked," Martin told Creative Loafing back in October about the move to the mall. "Our goal in coming here is to serve the people in the mall. We would love to unleash people on the food court. We're hoping to bring some life back to this property."
Back then, Eastland’s future was in limbo. Today, Renovatus and the other tenants of the once popular mall know they have to be out of the building by June 30.
Martin, who had hoped Eastland Mall would have been given more of a chance to return to its past glory, said he’s disappointed about the impending closing, but the church has reaped benefits from being in East Charlotte.
“The time that we’ve been here has been so valuable,” said Martin, “We don’t have any regrets about coming into the mall. Just the connections that we’ve been able to make with the community here and the ministries that we’ve been able to start that aren’t contingent on whether we’re able to be here.”
Martin said Sunday he told his 400-member congregation that the work they began out in the East Charlotte community will continue.
Renovatus (which is Latin for "renovation") had been trying to renovate and stimulate business in Eastland. Martin said first-time visitors to the church were given vouchers to eat in the food court. The church had opened a café, which provided free coffee, tea and pastries and was in the process of reopening one of the theaters to show movies to the public again.
“I’m the most sad for the other business owners in the mall,” Martin said. “We’re in a place where I don’t anticipate it being difficult to find another place to worship. I am more concerned about the other local merchants here. There is always so much rhetoric from the city about small-business owners. Well, OK, here’s about 60 of them. These last couple of months that we have here, we just want to do all that we can to help them.”
Right now, service will go on as usual at the mall, Martin said. The church plans to stay until June 30 and next Wednesday, Martin said Renovatus will host a community forum with the remaining business owners in the mall and city leaders to talk about the future of Eastland.
“This will give them an opportunity to talk and share and it’s my hope that the business owners here will be speaking with one voice. I would love to see them to come together,” he said.
As Eastland’s time winds down, Martin said Renovatus will celebrate what the mall was and what it meant to the community.
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