500 Mississippi Street
This is our recently purchased historic home at 500 Mississippi, just a few blocks from downtown Lawrence and the KU campus. It has that beautiful victorian home atmosphere with modern infrastructure and design touches. The main house is roughly 3,000 square feet, with an additional 800 square-foot home built in 1880. Lantern House, a local non-profit corporation, will begin its communal programming in the Fall of 2026 centered in our home at 500 Mississippi St.
Our home is complete with a basement meeting space to accommodate forty or more people for seminars, Q&As, and events, a dining room for intimate dinners and serious discussions, a sitting room for book studies and prayer meetings, offices, a developing library with over 5,000 currated books spanning the best of Western literature, philosophy, and theology, and a video and podcast recording studio.
Programming will include weekly rhythms of communal prayer and meals, public conversations around life’s most important questions, regular evangelistic discussions on the KU campus and in the community, and regular publishing on the Christian worldview.
Over the next 2-3 years we could see a public-facing joint venture of private business ownership working in concert with the Lantern House vision and mission. This would ideally be on or near Massachusetts Street. This second ministry site could include a specialty coffee shop with trained staff who share our vision for hospitality and conversation, classroom and seminar space, a larger gathering space, and an art display rotating exhibitions by local and regional artists exploring themes of faith, beauty, and the human condition.
Currently, we are in the process of renovating, furnishing, and preparing 500 Mississippi for our ministry launch in the Fall of 2026. If you are interested in donating key items, like commercial kitchenware, classic works of theology and philosophy, or tables and chairs, please reach out to Dan or Sam or email Dan at d.rudman@afci.us.
