Published: Jul. 25, 2022, 8:45 a.m.
By Ryan Boldrey | rboldrey@mlive.com Original article.
KALAMAZOO, MI — “Stop the colonization of downtown Kalamazoo by Radiant,” reads a sticker affixed to a utility pole in Farmers Alley.
Another was placed nearby on a street sign. Another slapped up against a building in the alley.
Radiant Church Executive Central Ministries Pastor Tim Matthews told the Kalamazoo Gazette/MLive he has seen a lot of the stickers throughout downtown, and wonders who made them and why.
“For me, the first thing that came to my mind is, wow, there’s a gap between why we believe we’re here and why others believe we’re here,” Matthews said. “I don’t really know exactly what they mean when they use that terminology ... Maybe it was the acquiring of this building that we have.”
The building, a 30,000 square-foot, three-story complex that abuts South Kalamazoo Mall to the west and Farmers Alley to the east, has attracted a lot of attention since the nearly 26-year-old evangelical church announced its purchase of the property in late 2019.
Not all of it has been positive for the church.
On more than one occasion, the church’s coffee shop on the Kalamazoo Mall, Matchhead, has been vandalized. The most recent occurrence took place overnight on Sunday, June 26, in which another nearby business, The Grazing Table, was also vandalized with messages of “shame” written in red on both properties.
The coffee shop also had the words “Abort God” spray-painted on its doors overnight Friday, June 24 — the same day the U.S. Supreme Court made its Dobbs decision reversing the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion.
Radiant Church founder and Pastor Lee Cummings celebrated the court’s decision on social media.
“Generally, I think people have a lot of hurt when it comes to the church,” said Pastor Rick Burmeister, staff and operations pastor. “When I see things like that, I think, ‘OK, there’s hurt there or misunderstanding.’ That’s where my heart does go out to those people, even to the people that vandalized our building.”
Burmeister said he feels there is more division in the country than at any point since the Vietnam era.
“I think part of our mission is to understand that hurt, to ask questions,” he said. “That’s the reason why we are down here (in downtown Kalamazoo).
LGBTQ+ stance
Adding to that complexity is the church’s stance on LGBTQ+ issues.
On one hand, Burmeister and Matthews have both said they want all to feel welcome at Matchhead, and for it to be “a safe space” where people can be themselves.
On the other hand, in a YouTube video published by the church, Cummings calls homosexuality immoral and states that one cannot follow Jesus and live a sexually immoral lifestyle at the same time. He goes on to say that it is a Christian’s job to “Matthew 18″ their friends when they have gone astray.
In the Bible’s Matthew 18, it is stated that if one’s brother or sister sins, one should go to them and point out their fault and if they will not listen, one should take a witness or two and try again, before taking it to the church. If they then refuse the church, they should be treated like a pagan or tax collector, the Bible states.
Cummings was out of town and unreachable for comment for this story.
When asked specifically about the founding pastor’s comments, Burmeister said the entire Radiant leadership team is aligned in that ideology and believes that marriage is between one man and one woman, and that that is based in an historical Biblical ethic.
That said, Burmeister feels strongly that Matchhead is built around hospitality. While it is owned by the church, the coffee shop is not a space where they intend to “Matthew 18 anyone,” he said.
“Jesus showed great hospitality in the Gospels and that is where I think it’s different, showing hospitality, being with someone, learning their story,” Burmeister said.
When asked why a member of the LGBTQ+ community or an ally should feel welcome in that space, Burmeister said the coffee shop operates with a mentality similar to the Hard Rock Café slogan, “love all, serve all.”
“We’re trying to show the love of Christ to the community the best way we know how,” he said. “We’re not perfect people. We have our own failings and faults and we’re trying to work on those.
“I think if we look at what we’re called to as Christians it is to love and I think that’s what really kind of birthed Matchhead; how do we love the community and how do we love the city in a different way? … We want people to leave here, whoever they are, to say they saw me as a person. That’s our heart.”
For those who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s not that simple.
“They can say that you are welcome, but when you ask them a question about homosexuality and faith, and they do square up, they definitely don’t sidestep the question,” said Casey Grooten, a journalist and local artist who identifies as non-binary transgender. “They will very clearly tell you that they think it’s a sin.
“That says that you are not celebrated or embraced. That means they’re not affirming you and that you are not welcome and that’s a big thing for me and there’s danger in that. A lot of people who are queer and looking for a safe space may unwittingly enter that building and they are going to feel welcomed and they are going to be welcomed but, in reality, they aren’t.”
Tracy Hall, executive director for OutFront Kalamazoo, the city’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group, echoed some of Grooten’s concerns.
“One of the things that makes Kalamazoo the masterpiece in the making, as our former mayor used to say, is how beautiful and vibrant our downtown is and how inclusive it is, and has been since, it feels like forever,” Hall said.
Hall, who became the county Board of Commissioner’s first openly gay chairperson in 2020, pointed to Kalamazoo’s city Ordinance 1856, passed in 2009 with 63% of voters supporting the addition of sexual orientation and gender identity protections to the city’s anti-discrimination laws.
“Most of those are allies, and that’s the community I live in,” Hall said. “I don’t live in a community that is represented by the values of that church. That’s not the values of this community. Perhaps it’s the values of some other community, but that’s not downtown.”
Hall, who said she isn’t surprised the church has expanded from its other campuses in Richland and Portage to downtown Kalamazoo with a goal of growing the congregation. Still, she said, there is a concern with what seems like a quickly expanding footprint for the church.
“There’s a whole lot of people, my friends included, in the queer, or LGBTQ, community that suffer and battle every day from religious trauma that they experienced as younger people growing up in a particular church or religion,” she said. “And when you are getting these repeated messages out there from whether it’s political actors in Lansing or from people in downtown, in this place that is supposed to be inclusive, that could harm somebody’s life or their mental or physical health. I have real concerns for our younger people who maybe don’t realize how inclusive our downtown has been the last 15 years.”
Hall said, looking back to the time of the 2020 election she feels there’s been a rise in homophobic and transphobic attacks around the country, as well as locally, and some of the language being used is language she thought, we as Americans had moved past using.
“Things that I heard growing up and that send shivers down my spine when I hear it, I’m hearing them again,” she said. “And then I hear things that somebody doesn’t think this is part of somebody’s identity or that they’re born this way, or however it’s rooted in somebody’s life. To think that they can simply just pray it away, it’s dangerous and it’s wrong and it’s concerning.”
Responding to the recent vandalism seen downtown, both Hall and Grooten said there are better ways to go about expressing concerns and getting one’s message heard than through damaging someone’s property.
“If people want to make a difference, it doesn’t always have to be big protests, and preferably it’s not spray-painting the word ‘shame’ on their windows, because I don’t think that’s very helpful,” Grooten said. “But, watch your money. Watch where you spend it.”
Tax-free status
Another issue Grooten brought up was the fact that other similar businesses in downtown Kalamazoo pay property taxes. Matchhead does not.
The coffee shop, as part of Radiant Church, is registered as a nonprofit.
Its employees are all considered employees of the church and the tips they earn, along with profits at the coffee shop, are then funneled back into the community through donations to other nonprofit organizations, Matthews said.
Organizations that have benefited thus far include Communities in Schools - Kalamazoo and Kindness Acts 20:35, the latter of which partners with local homeless recovery programs.
As the coffee shop comes up on its one-year anniversary in November, Burmeister said, the church also plans to reach out to the city about the tax burden created by Matchhead’s tax-free status, to discuss making a payment in lieu of taxes. No conversation with the city has taken place as of yet, he said.
“We didn’t come down here to be a tax burden to the city, or to open a coffee shop to make massive profits and horde those profits, or to start a nonprofit coffee shop to compete with for-profit coffee shops,” he said. “Our general thinking is the pie is not fixed. It isn’t a competition. We want to grow the pie for (all of) Kalamazoo and bring more action and life and vitality to downtown.”
To be clear, referring to language on the church’s website, Burmeister said bringing more people downtown does not mean further expanding the church’s physical footprint downtown.
A message on the Radiant Church website states, “Together by worshipping and praying daily, growing in discipleship, and loving our community, we’re building a radiant city. The best is yet to come.” The message is one that, somewhat understandably, can be misunderstood, Burmeister and Matthews said.
“Radiant is light,” Burmeister said. “Just being a light, being a positive light to the city, helping in any way that God calls us to sacrifice to invest, to be a positive influence in the city. That’s what’s meant by ‘radiant,’ not the name or the brand of the church.”
The church is not trying to take over the city as some of its critics have suggested, he said. It only owns the one building downtown, which houses Matchhead, the church offices, a small worship space, recording studio, a loft for missionaries and other guests to use and classrooms for the Radiant School of Ministry and Radiant School of Worship.
According to Kalamazoo County property records, the church owns two other properties countywide — the church campus at 995 Romence Road in Portage, and its other campus at 8157 East DE Ave. in Richland. There are no plans to purchase any other property downtown, Burmeister said.
“There may be people that go to Radiant that own other property downtown, but I can’t speak to that,” Burmeister said. “That’s their own personal business. There are a lot of people that go to Radiant, some are more invested than others so it’s hard to keep a handle on what everyone’s doing at all times.”
While there have been some negative interactions with people since they moved in, Burmeister said, for each there have been hundreds of good interactions.
“Some of those good interactions we have aren’t just people affirming what we believe either,” he said. “They’re challenging. I guarantee if we talk long enough, we have disagreements on issues, but there’s probably more that would unify us than what would divide us. So, let’s talk about the areas of unity and say how can we bring a positive impact to the city through those things.
“We aren’t perfect, we’re learning. We’ve had our legitimate neighbors help us as well as confront us on things and we receive that. For us to grow we have to be put in uncomfortable situations and I think that’s what God is doing here with us.”
Matthews echoed that it is the church’s conviction, as well as his personal conviction, to not only be neighbors, but be able to love their neighbors even if they disagree on things. The church wants “to create an environment where people feel safe and seen and appreciated,” he said.
“We want to pursue relationships with our community downtown,” Matthews said. “And our communities consist of people from all different walks of life, ethnicities, beliefs and we understand and we appreciate that. Friendship is a two-way street. We just want to invite people in for a cup of coffee and conversation.”