A year ago the residents of Cambridge Towers in northwest Detroit, a high-rise community populated by senior adults, struggled to get along. Hate, jealousy and envy sowed discord in a place where residents had moved in the hopes of finding authentic community.

Dave Coleman is the leader at Woodland Hills Hope Center in Montgomery.   PHOTOS BY KIMA JUDE

Then Second Chapel Hill Missionary Baptist Church established Bible study and worship services at Cambridge Towers. With the advent of church right on its premises, the atmosphere at the high-rise soon transformed, according to Lester Lewis, multihousing minister for Second Chapel Hill. People began to realize God wants more from them. Tension eased; relationships reconciled.

A few of the communitys residents started making their way to Second Chapel Hill, located seven miles away. But at the 250-unit Cambridge Towers itself, the number of participants in Bible study and worship continues to grow. Its blossoming way beyond what we ever expected, says Lester, whoalong with his wife, Charleneleads the congregation.

The impact of this Detroit outreach is not a singular success. In Lebanon, Ohio, Joe Veal, working under Urban Crest Baptist Church, has established two multihousing churches and is looking toward another three. Early outreach efforts among the communities have resulted in 75 professions of faith.

In Bakersfield, California, Chuck Melton, multihousing coordinator for the California Baptist Convention, has planted 23 Bible studies in 14 sites, including apartment houses, convalescent homes and retirement centers.

These are but a sample of the congregations springing up in multihousing communities all over North America as the North American Mission Board (NAMB) works with local churches, associations and state conventions to re-focus and refine efforts to cultivate the vast, mostly unharvested, fields of souls found there.

The term multihousing refers to both attached homes and those in close proximity with shared amenities. Sixty percent of the unchurched population in North Americasome 120 million peoplelives in multihousing communities. Left unevangelized, that figure could rise, because the numbers of people in multihousing communities, which include apartments, condominiums, manufactured housing and public housing, is increasing.

Apartment dwellers have doubled in the past 20 years. One in every 15 Americans lives in manufactured housing. In Canada, 30 percent of residentsmore than 10 million peoplelive in apartments and other multihousing communities.

According to Chris McNairy, national missionary for multihousing church planting at NAMB, churches which use ministries in attempts to assimilate multihousing residents into existing churches reach only about 25 percent of the people. Bus ministry is one such approach. When a church is planted on site, however, the success rate jumps to 70 percent, particularly significant when considering that less than 10 percent of multihousing residents attend evangelical churches.

Its not your mothers multihousing
Part of the increase in multihousing residents can be attributed to the marketing successes of the multihousing industry. Once considered the home of the poor, multihousing communities dot the entire North American socio-economic landscape, just as in Ohio, where church planter Joe Veal is targeting both low-income communities and those that feature $3 million homes.

Members at Woodland Hills Hope Center.

While public housing may remain the residence of last resort, many people choose multifamily dwellings for a variety of reasons, including convenience, lifestyle and community.

To sell its product, the multihousing industry has latched onto the idea of community, even to the point of changing how we talk about multihousing. For example, trailer parks are now called manufactured housing communities.

Yet, as Cambridge Towers residents in Detroit discovered, it takes more than close quarters and shared amenities to make a community. Our premise is theres no community without church, Chris McNairy says. Although residents may work the same kinds of jobs or have the same education level, they lack a vital piece of community when they dont have a church of their own. Churches that are planted on siteutilizing open space, a clubhouse, empty apartment or cafeteriaprovide more than just a common meeting ground. They knit a community together at the soul.

While Chris points to the emergence of a new breed of blended income multihousing communities, he contends that even the most economically humble communities have sufficient resources to support a body of believers. Lay and bi-vocational leaders are key workers. Congregations which meet on site have little to no overhead costs. On the contrary, upper income communities represent the greatest challenge of multihousing church planting, Chris says.

Your friends in multihousing
While logic might suggest that, aside from prayer, building relationships with residents is vital to a multihousing church plant, networking with owners and managers is most important.

When Joe Veal tried to follow up on people who had made professions of faith through early outreach efforts in Ohio, he couldnt find them and learned a hard fact of multihousing church planting. People tend to move every six months, he explains. I learned to tie the church to the facility rather than to individual residents.

By building relationships with owners and managers, who hold the keys to the communities, churches and church planters gain admittance. For example, Joe found that his professional experience as a golf course architect opened doors for him, because hed already worked in some of those communities as a professional rather than as a minister.

In Montgomery, Alabama, initial approval to establish a congregation at Woodland Hills, a manufactured home community, mushroomed into other opportunities. After Montgomery Baptist Association installed a mobile chapel on the grounds, the management deemed the church such an asset that it set about obtaining permission from owners to copy that model in its network of manufactured home communitiessome 500 in all.

While consistent pastoral leadership is vital, whether it comes from within or outside the community, it usually takes a team of on mission Christians to plant the church. Yet it can be a work-smarter-rather-than-harder endeavor. For example, Sunday school teachers investing their time in lesson preparation spend it more wisely by teaching the lesson not just once but several times in different locations.

In Bakersfield, Chuck Melton offers his services as a kind of activities director to gain admittance into a community. He enlists people who will teach aerobics or English as a second language, for example. We tell them well be glad to do all this, but well have church, too.  Its the kind of give and take that defines a community, an agreement to live together for the benefit of all.

For info on planting a multihousing church, contact Chris McNairy at 770-410-6000 ext. 5087 or email cmcnairy@namb.net.

Kima Jude is a writer living in Montgomery, Alabama.