After fire, Lansing church to decide whether to leave Eastside Neighborhood

LANSING — Two months after a fire gutted Unity Spiritual Center of Lansing, members of the congregation face a decision: Should they stay or should they go?

Members of the church will vote Sunday, Nov. 24 on whether to rebuild at at their current location or whether to relocate.

Christine Clements, who joined the church nearly a decade ago, favors rebuilding. 

Unity Spiritual Center, she says, has become integrated into the Eastside Neighborhood.

Clements, who lives next door to the church, saw smoke enveloping the building when the fire broke outSept. 8.

Nine weeks later, it is difficult for Clements to remember the scene.

"If I cry, just disregard that," she said during an interview. "A neighbor hollered, 'Chris, the church is on fire.' ... Even now, it's emotional. I look out and see our cute little brick church boarded up."

No one was hurt in the fire, although it caused estimated $350,000 in damage at the property.

The fire's cause is still under investigation, but officials believe it was accidental and possibly electrical in nature, Lansing Fire Marshall Marshaun Blake said.

The incident, Clements said, has, for the most part, brought the congregation even closer to its neighbors.

Unity Spiritual has been hosting services each Sunday in the Fledge, an events and arts space near Michigan Avenue. The Fledge's owner, Jerry Norris, offered the building just hours after the fire.

"Lansing is a really kind, helpful place," Rev. Sharon Ketchum, the pastor at Unity Spiritual of Lansing, said. "The Eastside Neighborhood is so diverse and you really have this person-to-person contact."

Staying at the Holmes Street property, which is sandwiched between Michigan Avenue and Kalamazoo Street, will require a zoning change, however.

The property, which has been home to a church since the early 20th century, was grandfathered into the surrounding, mostly residential area for decades.

Lansing's zoning code designates the church as a Class B nonconformity; The zoning code also states that a Class B property will lose its nonconformity status if it loses more than half its value in a catastrophe, like a fire. 

The Unity Spiritual Center bought the Holmes Street property from another church for $99 cash in 2017, property records show. The land was a gift from the Metaphysical Church of Christ.

Church leaders never had the property appraised prior to the fire, so it would be difficult to calculate how the disaster impacted the property's overall value. The church is exempt from paying property taxes. 

There is a workaround. The church could apply for Class A nonconformity status. If the Lansing's Planning Board grants that status, the church would be allowed to stay at the property regardless of how much value the property lost in the fire, Lansing's Zoning Administrator Susan Stachowiak said.

The church's recovery plans hit a roadblock late list month, when a neighbor's complaint prompted the city to red-tag a trailer on the church's lot that was being used as an office and meeting space. The trailer had been permitted only for construction use, according to the city.

The church must move its belongings from the trailer by Dec. 2. Unity Spiritual recently acquired another temporary office space on Michigan Avenue.

In the meantime, members of the church are scouting new locations. Some congregants have argued a new property will have advantages, including more parking and greenspace. Unity Spiritual Center of Lansing is affiliated with Unity Worldwide Ministries, a progressive Christian denomination

Church leaders are still determining how the costs of rebuilding would compare to the costs of relocation, Dan Maynard, a board member for the Unity Spiritual of Center of Lansing, said.

The maximum payout from the church's insurance would be about $650,000, he said. And, prior to the fire, congregants had raised $50,000 to renovate the church.

Lora Bruder is leading a team that's researching new locations for Unity Spiritual.

"It’s been traumatic and in that trauma I feel that we have stronger faith in God, in each other," Bruder said of the fire. "It’s like any other family when you go through tough times."

Community rallies around church after Sunday morning fire

Contact reporter Sarah Lehr at (517) 377-1056 or slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr.

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