Pastor Chris Brown of Doxa Deo Church in Matthews is doing a little something different with his campus during the week. He's renting coworking spaces to utilize the church when services aren't in session.
"We had a passion to integrate with our community and to love our community well," Brown said. "We wanted to blur the lines of where the church left off and the community began."
With this idea, Nexus was created.
"Really it was the dream of a local church," he said. "Most churches don’t use all of their space all of the time."
Brown said the coworking spaces bring the community and church together through an unconventional partnership.
"We just said how can we turn around and use that space for the good of the community?" Brown explained. "Nexus is the convergence of two important things. So our two important things were the community and the church, so we took our space and said how can we serve the community."
And this church opened up coworking spaces.
"We actually have the first coworking space in Matthews," Brown said. "It’s a small footprint that we have private offices, and we have open coworking spaces, and all of our spaces can be rented out as well."
Next to the coworking space is a cafe, which also offers catering. And for those hardworking parents, the campus has a preschool as well.
"We’re open all the time," Brown said. "We have 250 to 300 people a day on our campus."
Brown wants people to know what you put in here goes directly back to nonprofits in the community the church supports.
"Every time you buy a coffee or put your kid in the preschool here, or you are a part of something that we do, it's all a part of making the community a better place," he said.
Contact Sarah French at Sarah@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.