Word has it that the building and development of the Gospel Complex for Education, Heritage & Preservation is being put on hold, indefinitely, because of a lack of funding.
The concept of the ambitious 90,000-square foot complex, in development for nearly 5 years at this point, has had its fair share of problems.
Originally, the complex, spearheaded in large part by Dr. Bobby Jones, was to be built in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and would include a museum, television recording studio, retail space, a conference center, banquet facility, classrooms and studios. The Gospel Complex was even named after Dr. Jones for some time, until organizers thought it better to drop any names from its title.
Among the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization creating the Gospel Complex are Bobby Jones, Albertina Walker, Max Siegel, Kim Burrell, Jazzy Jordan and more. For more information on the Gospel Complex, click here.
It’s unfortunate that it couldn’t come into being just yet… what do you think? Would you have wanted to visit? Do you think we need a facility like this? Do you think Florida was a good site location for it?
Talk to me!
Am I suprised? Not a one bit. I had the chance of attending a lot of the sponsored events because I worked for the Urban League out in Ft. Lauderdale and and here's what I peeped a while ago... 1) Bad Location!!! While all of the events tooks place in the nicer cities surrounding, the actual location of the proposed site was in the "hood" area. We already know how difficult it is to get folks to buy into "religious" projects let alone one taking place in a high crime rate area. 2) Lack of Spiritual substance- Even with the most anointed artists something about the Bobby Jones conference seemed void of the Holy-Spirit. You know something's not quite right when folks spend more time praising man (i.e Bobby Jones, Albertina Walker, Vanessa Bell Calloway) rather than God. Let's drop all the tributes to the "greats" of Gospel and just focus on the King. 3) Good Concept but at the wrong place- A venue like this is very hard to sell in a city such as South Florida. It's going to take more than a center to shake up the strongholds that bind Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale. A revival & renewal of the mind needs to occur first.
ITA with this first statement. Ever since he first announced this at his "retreat" something just didn't sound right about it.
While the first post clarifies the major issues surrounding this project, I think the underlying root cause is due to the LACK of collaboration in the gospel music industry. From the description, it sounds like Jones' idea was similar to the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, the mecca of country music, yes? We will NEVER hear of the Grand Old Opry having any kind of trouble because if/when it does, like the floods that recently happened, there's a common cause to keep that place together. And the other thing: we (Black) folk need have funding secured and in place BEFORE such projects are started. Aren't we still waiting for the MLK Memorial to be finished in DC? Sigh....
Location, location, location. This center is not centrally located in the country and if I had to pick a spot on the East coast, I would do Maryland or North Carolina. Really, anywhere in the bible belt would work too. I never heard of this project, but I think Melu is right. In fact, most of the time, when Dr. Jones is involved, it seems more about people and less about God. This is not a judgement on the man, since I don't personally know him, but this is what I have observed. Anyway, the lack of spiritual substance is probably a key reason why the project is not moving forward.