By May of 2012 we had long moved out of the Banks House and had spent the last few years bouncing from one house to the next as the community grew from week to week. That Spring, just on the heels of our first UK tour, Will posed the question: “What if we were to put real roots down in our town?” This question stuck with us, and we felt the Lord tell us to "expand our living room". This word eventually brought us to the front steps of 119 W. Fifth Ave, a run down warehouse in downtown Knoxville, TN.
We launched a hair-brained, all-or-nothing, $100,000 crowdfunding campaign and after 30 intense days of social-media madness we reached our goal. (You know who you are. Thank you.) Shortly after, (thanks to a generous grant from a local foundation), we purchased the 10,000sq-ft warehouse and began renovations. Yep, 2012 was a crazy year.
In 2013 we finished the main venue space and began gathering for our Tuesday evening worship. Something we had kept up since the Banks House of 2006. For the first time in years, we had our own space.
From 2013 to 2016 Fifth Ave House was our home. We met there every week, continued to worship and find ourselves in the space. We recorded Simple Gospel there over two nights in 2014, which was by far the most collaborative record we’ve done to date. The project was exciting, but there was growing levels of unrest as we began to better understand the implications of owning such a large property.
In the end our team decided we didn’t want to carry the increasing demand of owning commercial property. It would mean becoming property owners and managers nearly full time. Something that in the end distracted us from hosting gatherings. We wanted to create music and foster communal gatherings, not managing tenants. It was a difficult decision process.
After a lot of soul searching we knew we had to let the property go. After four years in late 2016 we signed the sale papers.
Even though we no longer own Fifth Ave House we do hold regular gatherings in various venues in Knoxville. Check out our local gathering schedule.