Gaston Christian Center
One Location... Many Ministries
Gaston Oaks Baptist Church's building currently houses six different churches of different ethnicities and languages. They are also home to various ministries, the largest of which is Healing Hands Ministries* a medical and dental clinic. This total endeavor, the Gaston Chrsistian Center, has been granted non-profit status and the first Executive Director has been hired. Bill O'Brien was hired in 2014 to work with this new ministry.
For years, the congregation has been sharing its space with fledging congregations, nonprofits and even businesses as a way of bringing in income. But recently, something bigger has begun to unfold.
Church leaders are re-imagining Gaston Oaks as a different kind of ministry, one that will use this 22,000-square-foot space for something different -- and more lasting -- than its original congregation. Eventually, they hope, they will leave a legacy by transforming their church into a kind of incubator for immigrant congregations as well as a home for nonprofit ministries, including a major low-income health center.
They intend to create the Gaston Christian Center, with a board that includes all the partners housed in it, and to deed the building to this new entity to ensure that the space continues to be used for Christ’s work in this neighborhood.
“The day may come when the original congregation will decide they are no longer able to be a viable congregation. What we’re hoping to do is to have a plan in place that will preserve the use of the building for Christian purposes in perpetuity,” said the Rev. Dr. Gary Cook, who came to Gaston Oaks in 2008 and helped envision a future for it.**
*For more information on Healing Hands please go to http://healinghandsdallas.org/ .
**Excerpts were taken from the following article:
New future for an aging congregation
A dwindling congregation in Dallas shares its space with four international congregations and a health clinic as a way of ensuring that its legacy lives on after its members are gone.
by Judy Wiley
November 6, 2012
This article can be found at: http://www.faithandleadership.com/features/articles/new-future-for-aging-congregation
Gaston Oaks Baptist Church's building currently houses six different churches of different ethnicities and languages. They are also home to various ministries, the largest of which is Healing Hands Ministries* a medical and dental clinic. This total endeavor, the Gaston Chrsistian Center, has been granted non-profit status and the first Executive Director has been hired. Bill O'Brien was hired in 2014 to work with this new ministry.
For years, the congregation has been sharing its space with fledging congregations, nonprofits and even businesses as a way of bringing in income. But recently, something bigger has begun to unfold.
Church leaders are re-imagining Gaston Oaks as a different kind of ministry, one that will use this 22,000-square-foot space for something different -- and more lasting -- than its original congregation. Eventually, they hope, they will leave a legacy by transforming their church into a kind of incubator for immigrant congregations as well as a home for nonprofit ministries, including a major low-income health center.
They intend to create the Gaston Christian Center, with a board that includes all the partners housed in it, and to deed the building to this new entity to ensure that the space continues to be used for Christ’s work in this neighborhood.
“The day may come when the original congregation will decide they are no longer able to be a viable congregation. What we’re hoping to do is to have a plan in place that will preserve the use of the building for Christian purposes in perpetuity,” said the Rev. Dr. Gary Cook, who came to Gaston Oaks in 2008 and helped envision a future for it.**
*For more information on Healing Hands please go to http://healinghandsdallas.org/ .
**Excerpts were taken from the following article:
New future for an aging congregation
A dwindling congregation in Dallas shares its space with four international congregations and a health clinic as a way of ensuring that its legacy lives on after its members are gone.
by Judy Wiley
November 6, 2012
This article can be found at: http://www.faithandleadership.com/features/articles/new-future-for-aging-congregation
