Spotlight: Johnny Huddle: Finding purpose in repurpose

When the First Church of the Nazarene on Gading Road in Hayward stopped meeting in 2020, the denomination’s Northern California District considered liquidating the property. They enlisted realtor Dominic Dutra to handle the sale. Dutra, author of Closing Costs, a new book about repurposing church property, negotiated a complicated swap with a Korean church in downtown Oakland that gave the Korean congregation a different property with a large parking lot and the Church of the Nazarene a presence in Oakland they had not enjoyed since 1969. The Gading Road property remained in the hands of the NorCal District.

Just a short time earlier Johnny and Amanda Huddle were called to move from Los Angeles to Oakland to plant the urban church on 42nd Street in Oakland. They were joined by three other couples who made the trek north. The NorCal District told them they could do whatever they wanted with the building on Gading Road. “The English-speaking congregation had closed, but there were three other groups still meeting in the church – a Samoan language congregation, a Hindi language congregation, and a Spanish language congregation,” Johnny recalls. “These three congregations were strong. They were beautiful expressions of the Body.”

Johnny wanted to see these three churches continue. They use the sanctuary for services, but he had another vision for the rest of the property as he explains, “From an organizational standpoint I wanted to do things a little differently from normal Church of the Nazarene polity. I pitched starting a nonprofit as an expression of developing a real investment in the community.”

In His Image

He named the ministry EIKON, which means in His image; “The idea of EIKON is that we just want to become more like Jesus.”

The ministry’s first initiative was Infinite Christmas, a missional movement unified around a single imperative as Johnny explains, “Infinite Christmas is God becoming flesh and moving into the neighborhoods through active generosity. It’s mobilizing our people and getting us out into the community.

 Infinite Christmas, which derives its name from its kick-off date of December 23, 2020, unites church members and the larger community by distributing household items to those in need. Donated goods which are all brand new and include furniture, appliances, and non-perishable food are stored at Gading Road. Johnny says, “I thought Infinite Christmas would be the last thing we’d do. It was the first. I know it was God because He wanted us to build this network of relationships and partnerships that give us the opportunity to participate in a small way in the work other nonprofits and churches are doing as they serve vulnerable people at the point of need.”

Last year Infinite Christmas touched 18,000 unique individuals through forty points of distribution, known as PODS, churches and nonprofits that are EIKON partners.

Building community

Johnny has yet another vision for the Gading Road property – a tiny homes community. “We are partnering with the City of Hayward and with Cal State East Bay to provide tiny homes that will serve unsheltered or shelter-unstable college students. One in 8 Cal State East Bay students are shelter-unstable. The tiny homes will stabilize them and get them set up so they can then transition into more permanent housing.”

Construction is scheduled to begin in November.

“It’s a weird thing to plant a church. We listened when the Holy Spirit spoke to us saying we needed to be armed with ignorance. We’re listening to the community – learning what people are facing. There’s a hunger here in the East Bay to love our neighbor, a hunger here to be empowering, and to serve one another. We feel right at home here.”