Megachurch now home to looters, squatters
AKRON children of his sleeps the wife, on bed — cramming Matt the With he Pryor couch shares five him usually young listen- with out ing the car to eerie rolling what squeaking down he thought the of street a was toy at last window Stirred night. week, to awake he snap rushed one a photo- to night the a graph didn’t trash sleep of can two any on men a easier cart. pulling know- Pryor ing ing it his wasn’t Kenmore a ghost neighbor- haunthood He’s collected in southwest similar Akron. photos of scrappers over the summer, and homeless usually people who’ve overtaken an abandoned, 363,000-squarefoot church a block away.
A megachurch once boasting 4,000 weekly worshippers and the “world’s largest Sunday school,” Akron Baptist Temple is now a poster child of neglect. The building has been on the market since a year after it was purchased in 2018 by The Word Church.
The Realtor said a buyer is looking to purchase and demolish the iconic church then redevelop the 29 acres, possibly for mixed retail and residential use.
The potential buyer is unknown. Redevelopment would require rezoning the residential lot. And the owner, who county authorities say has not applied for tax exemption, would have to settle nearly $400,000 in back taxes, which could be waived with the application.
A standard 120-day due diligence period would follow the sale, during which the buyer could check for asbestos that could run up the cost of demolition and any subterranean concerns, like the type of fill used to raise the backyard where high grass has covered a baseball field. Still, demolition could hap- pen fast if a deal closes, as the real estate agent hopes, in the first quarter of 2022. Until then, the building slips deeper into disrepair each day.
Windows are smashed on multiple floors. Weeds are overtaking the parking lot. Plywood boards cover back entrances that have been pried open by squatters and looters. The inside “looks like a tornado came through,” the real estate agent said.
In October alone, police were called to the church 31 times, arresting 11 peo- ple, sometimes at gunpoint. On a single day, five people were charged with breaking and entering, trespassing or theft, including a man who hid beneath a pickup truck backed up to a rear entrance and loaded with scrap, and a woman who attempted to evade police capture by rushing into the church and crawling on top of air ducts.
A majority were released on the scene and told not to return as the county jail won’t take suspects charged with most misdemeanors and some nonviolent felonies during the pandemic. “We are currently accepting Felony 1s, Felony 2s, vio- lent Felony 3s, domestic violence, weapons under disability, dling Bill mit County Holland of and a firearm,” Sheriff improper with the ’s Office, Sum- han- said which jail. of our “We misdemeanor oversees are also honoring the county jail bed all contracts. case during This the has pandemic, been the as reduce we have our capacity.” been forced to ers A Clearing sign the House size of check a Publish- still leans of the against church: the “Akron front door Baptist Temple is now the official home of The Word Church Akron.” But papers taped to entrances send Sunday worshippers to the Chapel Hill location, which appears to be subleased to another church. And homeless people have made the church their home. On a morning last week, a chilly man bundled pushed in winter clothing his mountain bike and pull-behind cart out the back of
Akron Baptist Temple. He disappeared along an access road out back, heading in the direction of a scrapyard that told the Beacon Journal that it has only one customer who rides a bike, because his car broke down, and that man doesn’t pull a cart.
Akron: Site has been ‘on our radar’
neighbor, work Pryor, maintenance the said concerned he and used write to newsletters Rest Ministries, for the the Haven largest of homeless County. He shelter gets that in Summit there’s no ing easy public solution health to and balanc- community safety with the needs of individuals who are desperately trying to stay warm and fed. But since July when he attended the first ward meet- ing in Kenmore, he’s called the who’ve told him to call police, the church. He’s called the church, who told him to call City Hall. He’s called the mayor, who has thousands of privately owned vacant and abandoned properties to watch. “I know it’s a complicated situation, but it seems no one knows where the responsibility lies,” said Pryor, who lives a block from the church with his children and wife.
Mayor Dan Horrigan’s office said Ward 9 Councilman Mike Freeman first informed city administra- tors in late September about neighborhood concerns regarding the church.
“It is on our radar,” said Ellen Lander Nischt, Horrigan’s press secretary. Commercial property
inspectors told the property church and doors re-boarded. manager last have month. to been secure Windows boarded the and
fines are Enforcement, on and hold, demolition Nischt including orders, said, while the preferable the city holds solution out for of property. a buyer redeveloping the
Nischt “If that said, falls “the through,” next step would be to issue orders and send it to the Vacant Building Registry board to be demolished.”
Ed Matzules, the Realtor who’s been trying to sell the church for more than two years, said there’s little to deter the looting as scrappers take everything from copper
pipes to catalytic convert- ers knowing they’re probably stolen. Accepting stolen scrap is a long-standing issue and not Police an easy one to fix, said Lt. Mike Miller with the
Akron Department.
Items like pianos that are too heavy to carry off are being sold by the church’s owner.
Inside the front door is a cluttered mess of overturned shelves, pieces of insulation and trash. Empty fast-food cups and containers circle
the building. Three pump- kins recently appeared out
front, including one with a red palm print.
Thinking that media attention could encourage enforcement, Matzules agreed to
let the Beacon Journal tour the inside of the church last week, but a pastor called off
the visit and did not return a phone call seeking further comment.
End of an era for Akron Baptist Temple
“Something h as to be done,” Councilman Freeman said.
Freeman grew up near the church, where he was an assistant pastor from 1979 to 1985.
His in-laws where involved in the day-to-day operation of Akron Baptist Temple. They would be sad to learn it could be demolished, he said.
But enough is enough, said Freeman, who’s driven his car by constituents’ houses to check on reports of increased criminal activity, like the leaf blower that was stolen out of a car in Pryor’s driveway a couple weeks ago.
Demolition of the church would remove the standing memory of a legacy institution and mark the end of the expansion of The Word Church in Akron. Founded in 1934 with 13 members meeting on Sundays in a school, Akron Baptist Temple grew to embrace its doctrine. radio ing and mentalist note origin attendance the to Holland, to lian, The Connect 2007 the early criticism in took then of church most austerity megachurches. when 1960s, who the television, started Church research became for later the all of wartime to Rev. the moved on funda- outliv- on a slip foot- way Kil- But the Ed in pulpit. the the pastor for non he Holland wanted $1.5 Rev. told of million R.A. The sold to Beacon Vernon, Word surprise in 2018. church Church, Journal senior Ver- his to the congregation of the Holland a church, new church. and for Vernon with 10 months the shared gift members after of The the Word to leave sale. Church the But were not willing Chapel Hill location, 2013, for the which new opened campus in in Kenmore. dance suffered. And overall attengle By to 2019, keep up citing with a the strug- ballooning lease payments for the Chapel Hill location, Vernon put the old Akron
Baptist Temple up for sale for $3.9 million.