Kalamazoo Church Handing Ownership Over to Advocacy Coalition

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Leaders of one of the oldest buildings in Kalamazoo are planning to hand ownership over to what they said they hope will be a better future.

First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave., first opened its doors in 1853. Pastor Dave Nichols said after years of declining membership, the congregation didn’t require the amount of space the church possesses. He said additionally, the cost of maintaining the facility has become unsustainable.

“We reached a point years ago where we realized we didn’t need the whole building, we couldn’t use the whole building, but couldn’t quite figure out what to do with it,” Nichols said.

He said instead of letting the church inevitably close down and turn into who knows what, the congregation is gifting the facility to the Kalamazoo Nonprofit Advocacy Coalition, or KNAC. Read the full Kalamazoo Church Handing Ownership Over to Advocacy Coalition article.

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