News
What Does Our Neighborhood Need Most?
Sep 24, 2026
When Common Grace discerned that the most important question facing their congregation was how God is calling them to meet the needs of their neighbors, a new future began to emerge.
Common Grace had an important ministry decision to make.
Its aging church building in Madison, Wisconsin, needed significant investment. The congregation could pour its limited resources into preserving it — or ask a different and deeper question: What does our neighborhood need most?
The community's answer was clear: housing.
Common Grace began imagining something more: intergenerational housing alongside spaces where neighbors could gather, small businesses could grow, and community could take root. Good Futures, a program developed by RootedGood, helped the congregation imagine what was possible. Wesleyan Impact Partners provided an affordable loan with flexible terms so the church could use its property to lift up its neighborhood and bring its new ministry to life.
Walk into what is now named Eastmorland Community Center, and you can clearly see what that different way of thinking about what church feels like in action.
An artist is at work catching the light coming in from new tall windows. A small business owner is unpacking inventory in their office down the hall. Neighbors drift in and out through rooms that once sat mostly empty between Sunday services.
Then Sunday comes, and the same doors open for worship.
“It’s not about us,” says a church leader, Brenda Halverson. “It’s about what God wants us to do. You can’t serve the community and God’s mission if you are stuck in your ways.”
This conviction has shaped Common Grace from its beginning in 2021 when two congregations facing uncertain futures came together and created a new ministry.
Now, that same commitment to serving neighbors' needs is carrying Common Grace into its next chapter: new homes envisioned on underused property, artists and entrepreneurs filling once-empty rooms, and neighbors gathering throughout the week.
A congregation discovered what can happen when it asks not simply, how do we preserve what we have, but how can we use what we have to love our neighbors?
Faithful imagination opened a possibility. The right financing helped move it forward.
Rev. Staci Marrese-Wheeler, pastor of Common Grace, has a word for that.
“This is resurrection, right? This is what resurrection can look like.”
Help Make Possible What’s Next
New ministries, like the one brought to life at Common Grace, are made possible by generous individuals who believe in the new thing God is doing.
If you would like to explore ways to express your generosity or how financing could help your church or ministry bring its own vision to life, we invite you to have a conversation with our Chief Financial, Investment, and Lending Officer, Chris Miller.
The next church property waiting for a new calling might be closer than you think.