About Room In The Inn
Room in the Inn Memphis is a local non-profit organization whose mission is to provide refuge through congregational shelters for individuals experiencing homelessness in the Memphis and surrounding areas; recuperative care for homeless individuals recovering from surgery and/or inpatient hospital stays; and temporary housing in an effort to assist homeless individuals attain permanent housing. Founded in 2009 as an outreach mission, the group is based on the Nashville program under the same name, and was initially designed to provide support during the winter months and operated solely out of Colonial Cumberland Presbyterian Church. No longer an outreach mission but rather a ministry, Room In The Inn is a year-round program run out of some 55 congregations, as well as a free-standing building located at 409 Ayers Street, Memphis.
In November of 2009 a tiny congregation, Colonial Cumberland Presbyterian Church, answered God’s call to welcome strangers into the warm, safe sanctuary of a building that was underused during the winter. Four guests shared dinner and fellowship that first night with members of the church. This small group of people felt that this would be a good outreach “project.” Room in the Inn is no longer an outreach project; it has become a way of life and ministry for more than 50 congregations, and that number continues to grow. Memphis has many, many more of those empty, warm houses of worship that could become sanctuaries of holy hospitality. Our hope is that by opening more and more of them we can prevent people from sleeping outside on the coldest nights of the year. Father Charles Strobel, founder of Room in the Inn (Nashville) describes the RITI experience this way,
“When someone experiences hospitality and safety and a feeling of belonging, they experience sanctuary. Sanctuary is defined by the people, not the space. Everyone can become an expression of sanctuary. Ultimately, sanctuary offers one an experience of something sacred, something holy.”
