Before Trey Davis began as pastor at Ridge Road Baptist Church in Raleigh, the church faced hard questions about its present and future, including the work of a serious self-study with attention on its facilities. Ridge Road Baptist had experienced welcoming other congregations to use its facilities. The church also received an offer to sell the campus and turned it down! According to Trey, the church collectively expressed, “We have to use this place faithfully.”
And so, they are doing exactly that.
Trey began to lead Ridge Road Baptist at this pivotal moment, but he will be the first to tell anyone it has never been about him. It was a convergence of realities and opportunities that the church embraced together and that Trey has shepherded with care.
These include Ridge Road’s location in Raleigh, which is “15 minutes from everywhere in the city.” It includes a declining attendance that left folks more open to try, learn, fail and try again. It includes paying attention to what was already happening around them, especially a lively arts scene.
As relationships in the neighborhood developed and opportunity to open Ridge Road’s doors to welcome community groups expanded, Trey developed new ways to imagine the work and new words to employ.
The church began to distinguish “residents” in the building from “partners.” Residents rent space and Ridge Road is glad to have them. Partners agree to invest in the space, to pitch in for the care of the space, and to participate with other partners in shared service to the community.
Both are needed, but the “partner” groups have moved beyond sharing space to collaboration, including working together with Rise Against Hunger, hosting shared community events and helping one another promote the others’ good work. “There are a lot of churches sharing space, but I don’t see as many truly collaborating where members of the church, members of a theater group and members of another nonprofit are side-by-side addressing hunger,” Trey explains.
Community groups that share space with Ridge Road Baptist as either partners or residents include Karen Baptist Church, Common Thread Church, Midtown Community Church (Presbyterian), Aggregate Theatre Co.,Raleigh Amateur Radio Society (RARS), Ukrainians in the Carolinas and more.
For Ridge Road itself, Trey began to imagine and speak about transitioning from church “ownership” of the campus to church “investment” in the campus as a community asset. The change from ownership to investment cannot be overstated. It was a kind of surrender, Trey says, for the church to sense that while the campus belonged to them it could not belong to them for ONLY them.
Investing in the campus for the sake of the church AND the community, along with community groups joining with their own investment, brought lively engagement in the space.
All this comes with challenges, including logistics, scheduling, “our” coffee pot and “their” coffee pot, debates on what “clean” means, and the like. But, the embrace of neighbors, the engagement in Christian hospitality throughout the facilities, and the relationships forming are worth it, Trey says.
Learn more at: The Ridge Raleigh.
-By Randy Carter
CBFNC Welcome Network Director and Pastor (inspired by the work of Trey Davis!) of Temple Baptist Church
