Why Poe Mill?
Griggs Church is a neighborhood church with a neighborhood mission. What do we mean by neighborhood mission? It means that all of our evangelism and benevolence is dedicated to one neighborhood. our neighborhood. The neighborhood of Poe Mill.
Though there is a vision to replicate our ministry in other West Side neighborhoods, Griggs Church itself has no plans or hopes to grow beyond Poe Mill. For example, we do not hope to become large enough to buy a bigger, better building outside of Poe Mill.
One common misunderstanding when it comes to a neighborhood mission is that it’s somehow a negative thing when people who live outside the neighborhood join our church. Not true.
A neighborhood mission is not about who comes in, it’s about where we pour out. At Griggs Church, everyone is welcome to come in and worship no matter where they live. But when we pour out, we pour out together into one place: Poe Mill.
Why are we so passionate about Poe Mill? Poe Mill is right outside the city line of downtown Greenville. It’s one of the old mill villages that originally put Greenville on the map but has been forgotten since the mill closed. Many of our residents now face numerous difficulties, especially life below the poverty line.
HERE ARE SOME QUICK FACTS:
The average household income in 2021 was $30,208 per year.
The average personal income in Poe Mill is $15,888 per year.
25% of our senior adults live below the poverty line.
50% of the children live below the poverty line.
21% of residents don’t have a car.
14% are single-parent households, which is almost twice as many as most neighborhoods our size.
Half of the houses fall below $61,000 in value.
7% of residents are widowed.
Our community is chock full of amazing people. They’re the best folks around. But both physical and spiritual needs abound. Our church hopes to help in both ways as we follow Jesus who told us to serve him by serving “the least of these.”
Why West Greenville?
Here is a map of West Greenville, both it’s mill villages and other neighborhoods.
All of these neighborhoods made Greenville a thing; Specifically, the textile capital of the world, in the early 1900’s. Hundreds of families moved here to work in the mills where they would receive a home, schooling, and store credits as part of their compensation.
But as mills became less and less of an economic engine, these neighborhoods began to decline and become impoverished. They’re not within the city line, so they haven’t been upgraded, or given much care and attention. There are upwards of 2,000 homes in the old mill villages alone. That’s a lot of under-resourced families.
Each neighborhood is suffering with its own unique wounds. It’s our intention to plant and revitalize churches on this side of town because we know that only Jesus can truly heal those wounds. Here are just a few wounds each of these neighborhoods face.
THE WEST SIDE HAS BEEN IMPACTED BY RACISM
The mill owners and the mill workers enacted housing covenants where African Americans could not own homes in the mill villages and had to live in an adjacent neighborhood.
For example, in Judson, there were homes for the people working the mill, but African Americans couldn’t own those homes. They were designated to live in an adjacent neighborhood called Sterling.
This injustice propelled generational poverty for black families as well as causing division and hate.
THE WEST SIDE HAS A GENTRIFICATION PROBLEM
Many people are buying up and flipping West Side homes, as they’re relatively close to downtown. This is raising the rates of the rental homes in each neighborhood. This process is called gentrification.
The home values increase, which means landlords must pay more property taxes, which means rates increase, even though the rental homes themselves do not necessarily become higher quality.
The average rent for homes in some mill villages, like Dunean, is about $1,900 a month. Not a lot of people, especially low income people, can afford that any longer. The solution for some is to combine with other families so that multiple households are living under one roof. Others have been displaced and moved out of their neighborhoods.
This is particularly difficult for single-parent families, which disproportionately live in West Greenville. In Welcome, 20% of residents are single mothers. In City View, 23% are single mothers.
This is causing vacancy rates of 15% or higher in these neighborhoods which can lead to low morale. Imagine as you walk down your street two out of every 10 to 15 homes are boarded up or empty.
THE WEST SIDE HAS A CRIME PROBLEM
in 2014 the Greenville Journal reported that Woodside was the 8th most dangerous neighborhood in America. According to NeighborhoodScout.org, some neighborhoods in West Greenville register as a “5” on the crime index scale, where “100” is the safest.
On the corner of Buncombe and Shaw Street, you can see some individuals dealing drugs out in the open while sitting in chairs they brought to the sidewalk from their homes.
The solution to our crime problem lies in more than just making arrests. There needs to be a multi-faceted approach to solving the problem, including education, mental health resources, and job training. And most importantly, gospel centered churches on mission in their neighborhood.
In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we see Jesus constantly seeking out the lost, the poor, the broken, and the sinful. He purposefully goes to overlooked and marginalized places, like Samaria, and makes disciples.
He told us to follow him. He even says in Matthew 25 that one evidence of receiving eternal life is serving “the least of these.” He goes so far as to say if we have not served the least of these, we have not served him.
Thus, since we want to follow Jesus, we feel called to invest not just our resources but our time, our energy, our effort, our presence into “the least of these.” To walk in the very place Jesus would walk were he in Greenville today, for God’s glory and our good.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
- Matthew 5:1-2