A Columbia church that largely serves the city's unhoused population will close next summer due to financial issues.
Wilkes Blvd. United Methodist Church will shutter its doors in the summer of 2026. This decision comes months after announcing financial difficulties in May due to its tenant, Turning Point, planning to relocate.
Turning Point, an organization which offers mailing addresses, temporary storage, bathing facilities, prayer and Bible study and other means of support to the unhoused, is slated to move to Opportunity Campus, an extensive new homeless shelter and resource center.
Turning Point's current location at the church puts them close to the heart of downtown Columbia, whereas Opportunity Campus which will be on Business Loop 70.
Wilkes Blvd. United Methodist Church has been a fixture in Columbia for over 100 years, and has housed Turning Point since 2014. Pastor Andrew McCausland estimated that 80 to 90% of the church's congregation consists of members of Columbia's unhoused population.
But without rent money from Turning Point, the church has no option but to close.
For McCausland, the efforts to keep the church open were many, but ultimately not enough.
“We love being here for the community. It is the heart that everybody that serves here has, but it means a heavy toll and a heavy cost,” McCausland said. “And that's not just financial, but that's also in the energy of the people that are involved.”
The church's building will be returned to its umbrella organization, where it will attempt to give the building to another Methodist congregation. If the organization is unable to find a new ministry, it will find a tenant who seeks to use the building for community purposes, McCausland said.
“We don't believe, as Methodists, as our conference, that this is a horrible thing," McCausland said. “It's bittersweet, because there's a lot of people that grieve for this place. But we know that these are just buildings, and that the church lives on.”
