Pastor Martin Porter is helping churches utilize their grounds to build a legacy within their communities.
“A lot of developers and a lot of real estate professionals were approaching our churches and really not giving them the full picture—the full scenario of the opportunity as well as the challenges and helping them, and holding their hand to do the right thing from the perspective of what they should do with their land,” said Pastor Martin Porter, lead pastor of Quinn AME Church in Moreno Valley.
A faith-based, real estate developer, and managing partner of Logos Faith Development, Porter is creating bridges between ministry and real estate to transform communities, creating over 2,000 units of affordable housing.
“We saw a tremendous need—we saw a gap in that many of our churches and our religious institutions were being upzoned, that means the city of L.A. was changing the amount of units you could put on any given church property,” said Porter.
Born in the Philippines and raised in the United Kingdom, Porter grew up in Los Angeles. He attended high school in L.A., but took a long pause between high school and college. Porter went back to school in order to become ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal denomination and receive his degree in organizational leadership. He shared what led him into ministry.
“I had a moment in my life where I had personal challenges or personal trauma and it was later in my life and I really needed Jesus,” said Porter. “I was able to find him through my father in ministry, Pastor John Cager, and Ward AME Church.
“I’ve been called since I was a young man, I was 14-years-old and what led me into ministry was to help other people like me, who had faced personal challenges and overcome those personal challenges and wanted to share the gospel of Jesus with other people who weren’t perfect.”
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Porter’s mission statement through Logos is to help give people a home.
“What was happening is many of our churches were selling their properties or really undervaluing the potential of what could happen on their land. What ministry could they do on their land, what income streams could they create themselves?
“Were they but to hold on to their church property and actually engage in a partnership or ground lease develop, the underutilized or the unused church property. Here’s a church and they’ve got two or three lots and the reality is they’re not using two of those lots because 600 people aren’t coming on Sunday anymore, it’s just like 50 or 60 people.”
According to Porter, Logos began in 2014 and was established in 2018. They specialize in church and denominational development projects and work with the community.
“Logos came in and said no, let’s form joint ventures, let’s strike ground leases, let’s create a structure so the church can win, the community can win, quite frankly, the investors can win—all parties can win as opposed to just having our people’s land sold out from under their feet and that wealth being erased from their patrimony, from their legacy and from the community.”
Logos recently, in collaboration with world-renowned architecture firm Gensler, affordable housing leader SoLa Impact, and corporate partners such as First Bank and Walker & Dunlop, committed funding for a transformative affordable housing project at 6380 Orange Avenue in Long Beach, CA.
“It’s a new church in the city of Long Beach and it’s an old administrative facility, beautiful brick building that had been unused for 30 or 40 years,” said Porter. “What God wants you to do is be a good steward and so, we’re turning it from one thing, which is an old administrative building and now we’re doing an adaptive reuse, we’re going to turn it into affordable housing.”
Porter continued, “It’s 11 units of affordable housing for very low-income residents in the city of Long Beach. On that project, Logos, the team, is not collecting a developer fee, this is something we are donating back to the project.
“We’re donating our equity, we’re donating our ownership, we’re donating our fees back into the project and most of the players. Gensler and Logos we’re all doing this project low bono, pro bono in order to turn this into a high impact project for the church and community.”
Logos recently contributed to the Together We Rebuild event, hosted by SoLa Impact at the SoLa Beehive, where over 50 partners came together to provide $1,000,000 in resources for families affected by the recent wildfires. Logos also hosted a Gospel Brunch and worship service, offering both emotional and spiritual support while fostering community recovery.
“We were given an opportunity to lead worship service there to the folks that have been really impacted,” said Porter. “It was an honor; it was a privilege to be able to do that.
“Martin Muoto, the founder of SoLa, he’s really a mentor and a role model to me—that relationship is important to me, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him.
“We’re continuing to deepen our partnership with SoLa in a number of different ways. We, Martin and his organization make a tremendous impact and we’re glad to be part of it and we’re honored to be a friend and partner to them.”
Porter shared Logos is planning a regionwide convening around the subject of faith-based development and more to be revealed soon. He shared what churches and organizations looking to develop on their properties needed to do to begin.
“They should start by taking a look at who’s gifted in their membership to be able to sort of try to engage the city and find out zoning,” said Porter. “Who has gifting within their membership, forming a development committee and reach out to your city councilman, councilwoman.
“What is the community need? What’s the community saying? We have to lift up the voice of the community, you can’t just build whatever you want.
“Above all, bring it to the Lord in prayer.”
Porter also wanted share that Logos is looking for opportunities to work with more businesses and organizations.
“We’re also on the hunt for the hardwood floors, the painter, the paint, all the other materials,” said Porter. “We’re going to be asking them to sponsor the project as well.
“We want our vendors, our material providers to help sponsor the project.”
Porter shared he believes the next 5 or 10 years, there’s going to be continued opportunities to partner with churches. He wants Logos to give churches a new financial footing and make a difference in the community.
“In our community, the African American community, oftentimes when property is sold, we lose the one wealth platform that exists in order to continue to build a legacy,” said Porter.
For more information on Logos Faith Development, please visit www.logosfaithdevelopment.com
