Early in Catalyst Christian Church history, when we were only about two years old, I went looking around our town for a new location to house our church. We wanted to be more visible in the community and have a larger space to accommodate our future growth.
My friend and co-worker, John Kelley, and I drove up and down Main Street, looking for available space. We found a large, empty storefront with a huge "For Rent" sign in the window. The location was perfect. It was about 10,000 square feet, right on the main drag, highly visible, huge parking lot- in other words, it was ideal.
After glancing in the window, I decided to call the number in the window. A man's voice answered, "Hello?"
"Hello," I said. "I'm interested in your property located at (address withheld)."
"Sure," said the guy, perking up at the potential tenant. "It's ready to move in. What kind of business are you?"
"We're a church," I answered.
His tone changed immediately. "I don't do business with churches," he said abruptly, and hung up.
You know exactly what John and I did. We immediately went and found a lawyer, filed a complaint against the guy, listed our symptoms of emotional bereavement including but not limited to: headache, fever, depression, feelings of isolation, trouble sleeping, and worst of all a strong compulsion to listen to Nickelback. We hauled the guy into court, sued him for all he's worth, crucified him on social media, picketed his offices, made death threats against his family, broke windows in the property, and shut down a GofundMe page set up to help him out. Right?
Nope. We said, "Oh well," and went someplace else.
And that was it.
That's what decent people do.
He has a tenant that he wants to work with. It's his property. He can rent it to whoever he wants.
He lost out on the rent money we would have paid him. That's his business. Quite honestly, I didn't want a guy who feels that way towards churches to be our landlord.
America is based on the freedom of voluntary transactions between business and consumer. Voluntary. I believe he has the right to rent to whoever he wants. It's his property. He owns it. He invested his own money in it, it's his livelihood, and if he doesn't want to rent to us, he shouldn't have to. He doesn't own every building in this town. There are plenty of others.
He rented to someone else. We rented from someone else. No big fuss. No big deal.
We are in a fantastic location that works great for us. We can rent from whoever we want to.
And that's how a free society works.
My friend and co-worker, John Kelley, and I drove up and down Main Street, looking for available space. We found a large, empty storefront with a huge "For Rent" sign in the window. The location was perfect. It was about 10,000 square feet, right on the main drag, highly visible, huge parking lot- in other words, it was ideal.
After glancing in the window, I decided to call the number in the window. A man's voice answered, "Hello?"
"Hello," I said. "I'm interested in your property located at (address withheld)."
"Sure," said the guy, perking up at the potential tenant. "It's ready to move in. What kind of business are you?"
"We're a church," I answered.
His tone changed immediately. "I don't do business with churches," he said abruptly, and hung up.
You know exactly what John and I did. We immediately went and found a lawyer, filed a complaint against the guy, listed our symptoms of emotional bereavement including but not limited to: headache, fever, depression, feelings of isolation, trouble sleeping, and worst of all a strong compulsion to listen to Nickelback. We hauled the guy into court, sued him for all he's worth, crucified him on social media, picketed his offices, made death threats against his family, broke windows in the property, and shut down a GofundMe page set up to help him out. Right?
Nope. We said, "Oh well," and went someplace else.
And that was it.
That's what decent people do.
He has a tenant that he wants to work with. It's his property. He can rent it to whoever he wants.
He lost out on the rent money we would have paid him. That's his business. Quite honestly, I didn't want a guy who feels that way towards churches to be our landlord.
America is based on the freedom of voluntary transactions between business and consumer. Voluntary. I believe he has the right to rent to whoever he wants. It's his property. He owns it. He invested his own money in it, it's his livelihood, and if he doesn't want to rent to us, he shouldn't have to. He doesn't own every building in this town. There are plenty of others.
He rented to someone else. We rented from someone else. No big fuss. No big deal.
We are in a fantastic location that works great for us. We can rent from whoever we want to.
And that's how a free society works.