So, We Bought a Church!

We're as surprised as you are.

We mentioned that we were busy this summer… Here’s why.

At the end of 2024, Will and I were feeling itchy. Being trapped indoors for months with your children and husband (who is also your co-worker) tends to do that. By that point, we’d been saving for years for what the “next thing” in our business might be, but we still didn’t have a clear idea what that was.

What we did know is that our house was feeling claustrophobic. Not because it was too small, but because it was holding A LOT. Since 2018, our home has not only housed our family, but also our business. It is both Will and I’s office. A photo studio. A kitchen that pulls double duty as a work space. A place for homework and game nights and dinner parties and also light boxes and brainstorming sessions and dirty dishes (so many dishes).

It felt like every part of our lives was enmeshed with every other part, and that lack of separation was hurting all of us. It was tough to be present with work when the distractions of home were literally around the corner, and it was tough to be present for family things when work was always calling from the other side of the wall.

So, we started casually looking at real estate. We thought we’d look for a home that had a little outbuilding or space to build one. Instead, one night I stumbled on a very old, very brick church building.

It was the first listing that made my heart pump a little faster. It really didn’t make a lot of sense for what we were looking for, but it captured my attention nonetheless. My mind started spinning with possibilities. But first, I knew I had to show it to Will.

I expected him to shoot is down immediately, but instead he surprised me. He was into it, too. We decided to just go check it out.

We first saw the space in January. It was 20 degrees outside and inside wasn’t much better. Every time the heat kicked on, we could barely hear ourselves talk over the booming hum of the furnace. The space was bursting with natural light even in the dead of an Ohio winter, but we still decided to pass and see what else we could find.

Months went by. We looked at a few houses, but nothing gave us that fluttery feeling in our guts that we got when we first looked at the church. More importantly, nothing sparked our imagination. I couldn’t seem to picture us in any of the places we looked at.

But at night, I dreamed of the church. I dreamed of the light filtering through the trees and those giant arched windows. I dreamed of parties and meals shared around 20 foot tables. I dreamed of making the whole place smell like chocolate chip cookies.

So, in the spring, we went back. And this time, something clicked for both of us. We decided to put an offer in.

If you’re wondering whether things were smooth sailing from there, I would like to insert an audio clip of me maniacally laughing here. Over the next three months, we worked to secure a commercial loan for our small business. It’s a long story for another day (assuming I ever feel emotionally stable enough to revisit that time), but suffice it to say there were at least 3 times we were certain it wasn’t going to happen and many more times we questioned whether we even wanted it to happen.

Let’s face it. It’s a scary time to make a giant business investment. The general vibes certainly aren’t screaming “Stability,” particularly for food bloggers living in a world where AI can spit out recipes to your exact specifications in minutes (yes, occasionally it might advise you to put glue on pizza, but still).

The safe bet felt like holding onto our savings, having Will go back to a full time position in IT, and waiting until the economy settled down into some semblance of normal.

And yet. And yet. We could not seem to shake our conviction that this was exactly the time we needed to invest in something physical. We couldn’t stop feeling it in our own lives or the lives or friends and family. We wanted our energy to go into something tangible, something we could touch. We wanted to invest in real life, person to person connections. We felt the need to create safe spaces for celebrations and creativity and community now more than ever.

And so we kept going. With tears and rants and therapy and coaching, we kept going. And on July 18th, we became the owners of 115 Park, a historic church originally founded as Flint Universalist Church in 1872.

We inherited the previous owner’s event rental business along with the building, so the last month we (mostly Will) have been running on all cylinders learning the new business and making sure everyone who gathers in our space has a great experience.

In the short term, we’ll be continuing to rent the space for all sorts of small to medium events, including weddings, showers, birthday parties, and more. We’re also focusing on some necessary but un-sexy updates like a new quieter HVAC system, tree maintenance, and squirrel-proofing! Yay!

In the long term, we have big dreams to build out a gorgeous kitchen, make the space fully accessible, host cooking classes and themed dinners, and collaborate with other business owners to offer special events and studio space. A name change is also in the works, but we’ll save that for another day!

Owning a church is a surreal full-circle experience that I’m honestly still processing. Like many folks, my relationship with the church over the years has been, in a word, complicated. I’m a cradle Christian, and don’t really remember a time when church and faith was not a part of my life. For me, church has been a source of respite and beloved community, and it has also been a source of exclusion, pain, and disillusionment. I know many others, especially those in marginalized groups, also bear the wounds of the church.

While church may be complicated for me and many others, our dream is for this space to exist as an apologetically welcoming and safe retreat for all. We hope it’s a place where the wanderers and wonderers can create, imagine, celebrate, rest, and feel a sense of deep belonging that might be missing in other places.

We have many years ahead of us saving and planning and slowly but steadily turning the space into all we dream it can be. While that happens, I’m also challenging myself to fling open the doors and invite people in before it’s “perfect” and before I’m ready. If you’d like to follow along with the process and stay up to date on events, follow us on Instagram. I’ll also be sharing updates here on Substack occasionally.

And if you’d like to rent the space for yourself for an event, please reach out to us at 115Park.com.

We could never thank our NeighborFood community enough for helping make this dream a reality. We hope someday we can gather around a real life table with you and celebrate.