I thought I'd written an update on this before, but apparently I didn't.
In late 2021, a "non-LGBTQ+ affirming" church opened in a liberal, artsy neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina. Predictably, it attracted a lot of negative attention, but there were some notably strange things about it, which I wrote about in the blog post I just linked. First, it occupied a space that had been held vacant for some time by a landlord who supported the venture; second, it was planned to include a cafe and crafts vendors because, the founding owner and pastor declared, "I get really cringy about church spaces that are open for like an hour on Sunday for service and then take up massive real estate and sit empty." As I observed in that earlier post, I don't have the impression that most churches sit empty except for "like an hour on Sunday for service." They have services on other days - Wednesdays appear to be popular - plus Bible study, fellowship groups, charity work including food pantries, and so on. The pastor didn't seem to have any interest in such activities, or to know about them.
Every so often I would do a search for Pioneers, and nothing turned up until early last year. According to this article, the church closed down on February 25, 2024, with a clearance (labeled "Garage") sale to dispose of its stock. I had the impression that the founders hadn't done much to build a congregation, and showed little interest in doing so. They thought that they could run a church like a business, but didn't even do that very well: a business let alone a church would have tried harder to get along in its neighborhood and community, but the pastor did her best to dodge engagement with those who objected to Pioneers' agenda. According to the accounts I read of its beginnings, they thought they could simply "plant" a church without testing the soil. It's surprising they lasted two years; good riddance.
