Saved: Notorious Nightspot Becomes a Church
Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by Roman Espejo in Uncategorized
by Roman Espejo
A downtown evangelical church in search of a home has found unlikely quarters at a former dance club in Tribeca.
“You have to learn the ‘I don’t care’ dance,” Pastor Dan Stratton of Faith Exchange told his congregation during a recent Sunday service. In front of a makeshift pulpit and full band on standby, he shuffled and jigged. “You’re not going to pay that bill worrying. You will get paid when you put that dance in your step.”
Faith Exchange’s original location at 90 West St. was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks. In 2005, after several botched leases, it secured the ground floor at 443 Greenwich St., once the box office of the Tribeca Film Festival.
But the move proved unsettling for the church and its neighbors. The congregation’s amped-up gospel performances drew noise complaints, and newly installed green awning violated landmark regulations.
The building was sold a year later, and Faith Exchange was without a home again. But Stratton and his wife, Ann, wanted to keep Faith Exchange in lower Manhattan. So they held regular services in their Broadway offices and the ballroom at the Marriot Financial Center Downtown Hotel.
“The people down here really need the Lord, and we want to be of service to them,” said Ann Stratton, Dan’s wife and fellow pastor. She said that its non-denominational following has its share of Jewish members and attracts actors and entertainers who live in the neighborhood.
The Leonard Street vacancy this past April, which the Strattons found through their realtor, was the answer to their prayers. When it was Club Deco the month before, five people were stabbed during two fights in one night.
“The owners, one of their best friends, they do charity work with one of my husband’s best friends, and we never knew it,” Ann said..
The 200-strong congregation welcomed the windfall. “I think some people kind of got weary ‘cause we were moving so much,” said Sonya Davie, a health educator from Brooklyn who has attended Faith Exchange for eight years. “You can tell now people are coming back because we’re now in a stable place,” Davie added.
Faith Exchange began in Dan’s office in the financial district during the 1990s. A oil commodities trader, he published a religious newsletter and taught Bible study in his spare time. In 1999, he retired from finance and become a full-time pastor.
At Sunday’s service, Dan used examples from his life as a trader to reinforce the power of faith. “I’m really blessed—I made half a million dollars in one day,” he told his congregation. “God gave me these experiences not to brag, but to tell you how it feels.”
Ann agreed that God’s blessing brings prosperity, even in the recession. “Most of the people here are getting raises, increases in their salaries. Because why? We’re going about God’s business, doing things his way. When you do that, he’s going to bless you,” she said.
At the end of the two-hour service, Dan asked members of the congregation in need—emotional, spiritual or financial—to raise their hands. Several did, and he walked through the center aisle to bless each one.
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