the varsity

This Sunday, October 4, Love Chapel Hill will find our first home in the historic Varsity Theatre on Franklin Street.

The Varsity is a classic. It is a landmark, an icon, a central piece of Franklin Street's cultural landscape. Since we are a church with a heart for Chapel Hill, it is fitting that we make our home at the heart of Chapel Hill. But we want to make it clear to the community that we are not the new owners and we are not turning it into a church building. We love the history and heritage of this place, and want to see it continue to be a vibrant center of creativity and community.

Thank you to all of our friends who have prayed with us for a location. We are humbled by God's goodness in this. We can hardly believe it. I have a whiteboard on my wall (I know that makes me a nerd) where I've brainstormed possible meeting places. One by one, most of our best backups fell through. And at the end of it all, we are left with our first (and most far-fetched) hope.



I've said before that I've dreamed of this since high school or college. But I'm not sure 'dream' is even the right word. As I think back, it's almost more like a memory that I couldn't even understand at the time. Like God was planting a seed back then that He would slowly and patiently cultivate into a dream years and years later. I am sure I would have never thought of this. But somehow, the subtle memory of it is there. So, really what we are walking into is not our dream or vision or idea, but God's genius and goodness and generous kindness. This is the extravagance of His grace, up in lights and splashed across the marquee.