By Will Briggs – Madison Cap Times –
The Rev. Staci Marrese-Wheeler can pinpoint the moment she heard a conversation that crystalized the need for Madison’s churches to rethink their model. Two young student teachers were talking on their way to a monthly gathering, hosted in the former Lakeview Moravian Church building.
“They’d always come past my office and say, ‘Hi,’” recalled Marrese-Wheeler, pastor of Common Grace and co-director of the nonprofit Eastmorland Community Center. “One day I hear (them) as they’re walking downstairs, and one of them says, ‘What does this building smell like? It kind of smells like my grandparents’ house to me.’ And the other one says, ‘Nostalgia. It smells like nostalgia.’”
In the years since, Marrese-Wheeler has seen the congregation on Madison’s east side try to move beyond its past and set a new course for its future. A major milestone came with the official unification of Lakeview Moravian and Zion Lutheran churches in 2021, creating Common Grace. After selling the former Lutheran church site for a housing development, the combined congregation embarked on what is becoming an increasingly common journey for Madison-area churches: a full-scale redevelopment of its sanctuary into housing and nondenominational community space.