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Meet Living Stones
Living Stones Church was planted in January of 2010 after incubating in another church. The church was set up inside the McCarran Loop in the inner part of Reno — a place known for being the second least churched city in America.
Living Stones’ presence in Reno has transformed it over the years. Nearby adult content shops have closed down. Church-hosted festivals have come to be community highlights. (One event even had 30,000 people in the streets for a single, one-day event.)
In short, the church has become part of the cultural fabric of Reno. It is a ministry with a physical and transformational presence “in the city, for the city.”
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Finding Space (and Maintaining Impact) in Reno
While effective from its downtown location, Living Stones was operating in a city. That meant cramped spaces and limited parking. For years, the church planted multiple campuses (up to 10 as of this writing), but the main downtown church remained an issue.
Church elders looked to the future and were burdened by the rent money the church was throwing down the drain. They wanted to move into a permanent location, but the cost for most downtown locations was too high. They felt God saying, “Be prepared,” so they went ahead and held a mission pledge day on May 4, 2025, to start raising funds.
Two weeks later, an old movie theater with 12 cinemas went up for sale on the riverwalk downtown. The building was 52,000 SF and was a culturally significant icon. A previous purchase had fallen through, dropping the price, first from $11M to $7.75M, then a further drop to $5M.
Executive Pastor Craig Parish immediately set things in motion. He got the property on the staff’s radar. They started talking about what an investment could do for church activities on the weekends, as well as for weekdays. Sunday services, coffee shops, preschools, the opportunities were endless. But were they feasible? To help answer that question, Pastor Craig called Nathan from Ministry Solutions Group.
The Ministry Solution
The Living Stones staff already knew Ministry Solutions Group. Founder Nathan Artt was able to immediately start talking through the financial possibilities, legal hurdles, and other logistics. A key priority was that they didn’t want to redline the church with a move that was too big.
Then things started to shift. First, the people of the church raised $1M in gifting. Then the owner offered to carry the note. Only 20% was needed to buy the building. The door was opened, and Living Stones (with Ministry Solutions Group by their side) stepped through it with confidence.
In the following months, Ministry Solutions Group became a huge asset in the church moving process. The team’s expertise was invaluable, as was the energy it offered by jumping into the process at full speed.
They helped overcome political hurdles and resistance from contractors who pushed back against a church getting the desirable property. Members of the city council were suspicious, as well, of a church coming in like a developer.
MSG helped Living Stones find a contractor who was a believer and who was willing to walk through the property and inform the process, basically at cost. Nathan’s team continued to operate at this crossroads of church and construction, providing speed, efficiency, and accuracy in the middle of a lot of moving parts and with multiple voices in the room.
Living Stones closed on the sale of the theater in September of 2025. But the work was just getting started.
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A Vision for the Heart of Reno
Since closing on the property, Living Stones Church has begun to put in motion a spectacular vision for how the building could serve not just the church but the people of Reno. All 52,000 SF space are set to be renovated. With an additional 13,000 SF added on the mezzanine level. Over 11,300 SF is designated as Future Tenant Space, with an additional 16,399 SF as shared space with other tenants.
The project estimate comes in at $9.5M and is called Reforma, which is Latin for “transformation” or “renewal.” It includes a new 850-seat Living Stones’ worship center as the key anchor tenant, as well as an activation of the river walk that will house:
- A coffee shop open to the local community
- Two restaurants
- Four retail spots
- Preschool with capacity for 140 kids
- One of the largest event spaces on the river in Reno
- Potentially a ranger station (pending conversations with the Parks Department)
MSG project manager Jeff Achten continues to advise the project, bringing 40 years of experience to bear on every decision. The MSG team continues to sit in general contractor and architectural interviews. It is watching for pitfalls and helping the Living Stones leadership team operate with wisdom at every step.
Plans for the new construction are, as of this writing, complete and submitted to the city. Demo started on the building, and the new construction is hoped to be completed by the spring of 2027 and aims to open on Easter.
