A Haven for the creative – Downtown church builds community through weekend arts events

A typical Sunday morning at church may include fellowship, a sermon and prayer, and that’s pretty much what you’ll find at Haven Church on the Sabbath Day. But on Fridays and Saturdays, you’ll more likely find secular-leaning local art and musicians, and quite possibly a bottle of whiskey—because Haven is far from your typical church.

Haven Church founder Pastor Troy Mercer is a full-time hairdresser from Slaughter who lives a creative life and has a big heart, kind smile and strong religious views rooted in the Christian faith. He preaches straight from the Bible on Sundays to a mixed congregation of youth, adults, seniors, babies and even a couple of dogs. But during the first weekend of the month, Mercer shows his wildly progressive side by opening the doors of his church to artists of all types with the Haven Gallery on Friday and the Listening Room on Saturday.

Mercer, who works 40-50 hours a week to support his family, doesn’t run the arts events himself, but rather entrusts musician Ryan Harris and graphic designer Isral Duke for the Listening Room and the Haven Gallery, respectively. Harris, who came across the church through an existing music event, and Duke, who was searching for a new church, have each been facilitating their arts events for two years, with Mercer’s blessing and a trust that while the BYOB events may lean secular, they are not blatantly offensive to the sanctuary.

The two also have their own rules about booking. “If I think someone is intentionally trying to be offensive then I won’t book them, but I’m looking at it more for someone’s benefit, because people won’t be receptive or buy merchandise [from the artist] if they are offended,” Harris says.

Duke, who agrees with Harris on restricting artists who are blatantly offensive, says he has encountered instances where parishioners have been angered by art that remained hanging after a Haven Gallery show. Duke now removes all art promptly after each show, because he and Harris believe fellowship is most important.

“It’s a chance for people to hang out and build community. There’s a synergy between the arts as a whole where we can challenge ourselves to do better by helping one another out. That’s what I think Haven is good for,” Harris says.

Haven Church held its first service on Sept. 11, 2006, at Buzz Café on Florida Street. The church functions through the ideals expressed in Psalm 107 that speak to loving and providing a place for the broken, and Mercer’s belief that God created creative beings in His image.

“God Himself is creative, and he created. God loves creative people, so we love creative people,” Mercer says. “I think that the creative side has been largely dismissed by the church as a whole and replaced by a beige creativity.”

The church rarely gets carry-over from the arts events to Sunday morning service, and it receives no benefit from hosting them outside of the ability to fulfill the mission of Christ in providing artists a safe place to share. Since moving its services to the second tier of an old duplex house on Laurel Street, the church has garnered a congregation of approximately 40 people and a stronger desire to reach out to its community. It’s also gained a wish to become a paradigm for other faith-based organizations to start up and do the same. As for the means in which Haven supports the area, there’s neither shame nor fear and certainly no obstacles to navigate.

“There isn’t a navigation; I think it’s our job to be a part of the community and to provide these things; we don’t worry about what other people or other churches think of us,” Mercer says. “It’s never going to be a place where people are going to get totally slammed [inebriated], and it’s never going to be a dance club; people just come to support the real community.”