About Us
About Us
Before we called ourselves Newchapter, we spent a few years developing new fraternity houses, but to be honest, never really felt a passion for doing it. It just didn’t line up with our…um…aspirations. But we did learn a lot about student housing and how important community is in creating successful student housing facilities. In fact, one thing we noticed in some of the old fraternity houses we visited, is several guys would willingly live in awful quarters, just so they could be a part of their “brotherhood”. So it got us asking, how much more would students who share the same spiritual beliefs want to live in community? Could student housing facilities for College Ministries offer the same sense of community?
Something else we noticed when we would complete a new fraternity house, was the membership would almost always increase. In fact, it wasn’t unusual to see a 20 or 25 percent increase in numbers, which got us asking some more questions. Would a student housing facility give a College Ministry more of a presence on campus, and an ability to attract more students to the organization? And like the fraternity houses we developed, could the projects be structured in a way in which they could offer a sustainable source of revenue for the Ministry?
It took a couple of years, and a whole lot of twists and turns in the road, but eventually we were able to answer these questions. And the answer was “yes”…but! You see, College Ministries are not Fraternities (surprise!). This is evident in many ways, but one way in particular is College Ministries are generally not equipped to “do housing”. Unlike Fraternities who have had 140 years to figure it out, student housing facilities is a relatively new and unusual concept for College Ministries. There is no consistent model, or system in place to show how to make it work. In fact, there are a handful of disastrous, or near-disastrous failures of ministries who have tried. And the common thread we noticed with these failed attempts was not so much the ministry, as it was people from the outside – developers usually – who promised the world, perhaps with good intentions, but without a good understanding of College Ministries.
Well, we took this to heart, and recently shifted our focus from building more buildings, to creating a better system. A system that, above all, would allow College Ministries to continue with their missions, yet at the same time enjoy the benefits of a successful student housing facility. A system in which the facility is simply a tool to provide a greater sense of community, expand a ministry’s presence on campus, and offer a sustainable source of revenue for years to come.
If you would like some more information about Newchapter, or would like to explore how a student housing facility can be a part of your future, please call us at (217) 762-3300, or email info@ournewchapter.com.