On Easter Sunday, The Gathering House will be opening its doors for its first service since its recent relocation to the Garland District.
The Gathering House, once called First Covenant Church, is now being referred to as a “Covenant Church Cafe.” During the week, the space will be home to a coffee shop and, eventually, a pizzeria. Then on Sundays, the espresso machine and kitchen will be shut down so the space can be used to hold worship services for the church congregation.
Rob Bryceson is both the pastor of The Gathering House, as well as the chairman of the Spokane Homeless Coalition. He first came up with the idea for the church cafe roughly a decade ago and has overseen the project since its beginning, he said. He refers to The Gathering House as “the First Covenant Church being rebirthed.”
Before moving from its past location in downtown Spokane, the church provided meals and services for a portion of the homeless population in the community. Bryceson said that typically 150 people would come to the church for a meal, 40 of those people would attend church, and of that original number, 10 would get their life back.
To continue his efforts in helping the homeless community in Spokane, Bryceson came up with the idea to use The Gathering House as a space to provide a job-training program for those seeking to escape poverty.
“We can use our square footage more functionally to train people coming out of poverty for jobs,” said Bryceson.
Those participating in the program will be taught cashiering skills, as well as receive training to be baristas and work in restaurant kitchens.
The Gathering House is a “training facility,” said church member Marco Cioccio.
Not only will the space provide the job-training program, The Gathering House will offer classes and courses to help teach life skills. These will include responsible renters classes, as well as courses on conflict management and personal money management.
Bryceson added that, when the space is completely up and running, he would like to see it used for youth groups, Bible studies, as well as local business and non-profit meetings.
The Gathering House is a “hang out we can do church in,” said Bryceson, “but we want our hang out to actually help people.”
